SCBIZ Daily Staff

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina’s annual financial report is available online, giving taxpayers and voters easy access to a comprehensive explanation of how taxes and other revenues were collected and spent in the year that ended June 30.

“Providing citizens with easy access to how public dollars are spent is a giant step toward improving accountability and transparency,” state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom said.

Eckstrom said the report was prepared in 135 days this year, compared with 241 days for 2002, the year before he was elected comptroller general.

Eckstrom is the first certified public accountant to serve as Comptroller General, the state’s elected financial watchdog.

He said citizens can see the report on the Web site of the Office of the Comptroller General. The report contains detailed spending information for more than 80 state agencies.

Eckstrom also said he plans to work with municipal, school district and county governments to encourage them to put spending information online and is offering to host their data on the Web site of the Office of the Comptroller General so that anyone interested can access spending information at a single site.

In August, Eckstrom revealed the state’s end-of-year fiscal data, as of June 30.