S.C. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom S.C. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom held a press conference Tuesday, Nov. 18, in his third floor conference room inside the Wade Hampton Office Building, part of the State House complex. The occasion was to announce his new transparency program in the form of new software and its accounting of state expenditures.

He is still improving the efficiency of the software. S everal years ago there were 74 separate computer systems in state government agencies. Within another 18 months, the entire state and all of its government divisions will work under a single computer system.

As Eckstrom put it, "When you're spending other people's hard- earned money, it's just common courtesy to let them know how it's spent. That's not a principle always embraced by government. Too often, tax dollars are spent under a shroud of secrecy, and decisions that affect your family are made out of public view."

So it's the public view Eckstrom wants to reach with his Web site www.CG.SC.gov and his complete State of South Carolina Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2008. Eckstrom declined to comment when the observation was made about the state's capital city and its failure to have any such thing complete and available "For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2008" and even "For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2007," too.

A state of several million people should be the entity behind schedule, not a city of a few more than a hundred thousand. Again, Eckstrom couldn't comment.

Six years ago, Eckstrom said, the state took 243 days following the end of the fiscal year to get out the annual financial report. This year, the 250- page document got out in 135 days.

Under Eckstrom's system of full financial disclosure, no one in S.C. government can say "No" to any citizen asking about how the taxpayer's money is spent. It's all there on the Web site.

Eckstrom offered an illustration of what can turn up in a full review of the year's state spending. The state's retiree health plan is $8.5 billion unfunded, for instance. Another interesting conclusion is the total travel expenses for the year, about $80,000,000. On a positive note, for calendar year 2007, the state's per capita income was $31,013, while the year before, 2006, it was $29,767.

Asked what or who is still exempt from offering the comptroller general's office full financial disclosure to be included in the state's annual report, Eckstrom said, "All higher eds (USC, Clemson, MUSC, etc.), the Legislature, and the S.C. Research Authority."

Beginning in the 2009 report, Eckstrom plans to include local governments such as cities and counties and school districts.

Tackling this full financial disclosure, Eckstrom said, puts S.C. near the lead of the pack among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.