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Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel
Ohio's Public
Pension Funds to Post Checkbooks on OhioCheckbook.com
COLUMBUS - Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and officials from the Ohio
Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), the State Teachers
Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio), the School Employees Retirement
System (SERS) of Ohio and the Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System
(HPRS) announced today a partnership with the Ohio Treasurer's office
to place their spending online at OhioCheckbook.com.
Last year, Treasurer Mandel launched OhioCheckbook.com, which sets a
new national standard for government transparency and for the first
time in Ohio history puts all state spending information on the
internet. OhioCheckbook.com recently earned Ohio the number one
ranking in the country for government transparency.
With today's historic announcement, all five of Ohio's statewide public
pension funds have formally agreed to post their checkbook level
expenditures online at OhioCheckbook.com. This announcement also
represents Ohio becoming the first state in the country to have all
statewide pension fund checkbooks online. On October 1, 2015, the
Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund became the first statewide pension
fund in Ohio to partner withOhioCheckbook.com.
The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and the School Employees
Retirement System of Ohio have agreed to submit their checkbook level
expenditure data to the Treasurer's office by January 15, 2016 and to
publish their online checkbook websites atOhioCheckbook.com by February
16, 2016.
"A pension system that is responsible for the stewardship of member and
employer contributions must always operate in full view of the public,"
said OPERS Executive Director Karen Carraher. "We already present
extensive financial information on the OPERS website, and in working
with the treasurer in this manner we continue our 80-year legacy of
transparency."
"STRS Ohio serves nearly 500,000 active, inactive and retired public
school educators. We believe strongly in transparency and have reported
monthly administrative expenditures of our system for many years,"
stated STRS Ohio Executive Director Michael Nehf. "We are now
pleased to partner with the treasurer's office on this transparency
initiative to include STRS Ohio's administrative expenses on the Ohio
Checkbook."
"While SERS has always been transparent with its expenditures and
posted them for more than a decade, participating in the Ohio Checkbook
is a logical extension of that commitment," said Lisa J. Morris,
Executive Director of the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio.
"The added functionality of the Ohio Checkbook can only enhance the
usefulness of the information we provide."
"HPRS has always been a strong advocate of openness and transparency
which is supported by the 'A' rating in transparency HPRS and the other
state pension systems recently received from the Center for Public
Integrity," added Mark Atkeson, Executive Director of the Ohio Highway
Patrol Retirement System. "In addition to information published
on our website, partnering with the Treasurer of State and
participating in the Ohio Checkbook complements our commitment to
providing access to public information."
"I believe the taxpayers and retirees of Ohio have a right to know how
their tax money is being spent and I applaud Ohio public pension funds
for partnering with my office to post their finances on
OhioCheckbook.com," said Treasurer Mandel. "My vision is to
create an army of citizen watchdogs who are empowered to hold public
officials accountable."
On April 7th, Treasurer Mandel sent a letter to 18,062 local government
and school officials representing 3,962 local governments throughout
the state calling on them to place their checkbook level data on
OhioCheckbook.com and extending an invitation to partner with his
office at no cost to local governments. These local governments include
cities, counties, townships, schools, library districts and other
special districts.
A large coalition of statewide and local government organizations have
expressed support for OhioCheckbook.com and local government
transparency, including:
Ohio Municipal League
Ohio Township Association
Ohio Association of School Business Officials
Buckeye Association of School Administrators
County Commissioner Association of Ohio
County Auditor Association of Ohio
Ohio Newspaper Association
Ohio Society of CPAs
Buckeye Institute
Common Cause Ohio
OhioCheckbook.com was launched on December 2, 2014, marking the first
time in Ohio history when citizens could actually see every expenditure
in state government. Since its launch, OhioCheckbook.com has received
overwhelming support from newspapers and groups across the state and,
as of December 17th, there have been more than 411,000 total searches
on the site.
OhioCheckbook.com displays more than $490 billion in spending over the
past eight years, including more than 134 million transactions. The
website includes cutting-edge features such as:
"Google-style" contextual search capabilities, to allow users to sort
by keyword, department, category or vendor;
Fully dynamic interactive charts to drill down on state spending;
Functionality to compare state spending year-over-year or among
agencies; and,
Capability to share charts or checks with social media networks, and
direct contact for agency fiscal offices.
In March, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) released
their annual"Following the Money 2015" report and Treasurer Mandel
earned Ohio the number one transparency ranking in the country for
providing online access to government spending data. Ohio was
prominently featured in the report after climbing from 46th to 1st in
spending transparency as a result of Treasurer Mandel's release of
OhioCheckbook.com. Due to the launch of OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio
received a perfect score of 100 points this year - the highest score in
the history of the U.S. PIRG transparency rankings.
The Treasurer's office is partnering with OpenGov, a leading Silicon
Valley government technology company, to provide residents of Ohio the
ability to view and search local government expenditures in a
user-friendly, digital format. "Ohio is setting the standard for
financial transparency on an unprecedented scale. We are excited to
partner with the Treasurer's office to bring world-class technology to
communities large and small across the state," said Zachary Bookman,
CEO of OpenGov.
For more information visit OhioCheckbook.com.
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