After a 1990 FBI investigation into South Carolina lawmakers taking bribes, the House and Senate passed tougher ethics laws. But an analysis by The State newspaper found that many lawmakers are not following those new rules when they fill out their campaign disclosure forms. It's important because those forms allow journalists, and the public, to follow who's giving how much money to whom.

Sen. Ronnie Cromer is an example of one of the mistakes found. He's a Republican who represents parts of Newberry, Lexington, Saluda and Union counties. He listed on his campaign disclosure form that he got a $500 honorarium for giving a speech to the state Pharmacists Association at its convention. But ethics rules prohibit lawmakers from receiving money for giving speeches.

Sen. Cromer says he realizes ignorance is no excuse, but he didn't know that he couldn't accept an honorarium.

"When my wife, who does my financial statement for me, or ethics statement, asked me, 'How do we list this?' And I said, 'Well, it was a contribution but they mentioned honorarium. Why don't we just put honorarium down?' So I mislabeled it. It was my fault. I have since returned the money," he says.

Greenwood Sen. John Drummond is another example. His form lists a contribution of $2,000 from a single donor. The limit is $1,000. Sen. Drummond tells News Channel 7 that it was actually a $1,000 contribution for the primary and another $1,000 for the general election, which is allowed. But his staff made a mistake and listed it as one, $2,000 contribution.

The analysis and the resulting mistakes it found point to a problem with the system--a lack of oversight and enforcement. The House and Senate Ethics committees are supposed to monitor members and enforce the rules. But House Ethics Chairman Rep. Roland Smith admits he doesn't have the staff to do that.

"We need to look at finding someone in our office, which we only have one person, and that is to get some help in order to go in and audit those reports," he says.

Another problem is that you can't see the reports online if you want to monitor the flow of money yourself. If you wanted to check the campaign disclosure forms of your local representative or senator, you would have to go to the clerk of court at your county courthouse to do that. But if you wanted to check on the reports of someone from outside your county, you'd have to travel to Columbia to the State Ethics Commission to look at the reports in person.

You can request copies of the report be mailed or faxed to you, but they're 50 cents per page, and each lawmaker's form is several pages long.

The budget that the House passed unanimously Tuesday does include the $300,000 needed to put the campaign disclosure forms online, though. The Senate has also indicated it wants to fund that, too.

That won't solve the enforcement problem, but it would at least allow you to find out what's going on more easily.