September 3, 2002


FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY

Comptroller General James A. Lander has announced that for the fourteenth consecutive year, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) has awarded its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the State of South Carolina. The Comptroller General's Office prepared South Carolina's Comprehensive Annual 
Financial Report (CAFR) for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001, on which the award was based.  Comptroller General Lander received the GFOA's Award of Financial Reporting Achievement for being the person primarily responsible for the State's receipt of the Certificate of Achievement.

The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of national recognition in the area of governmental financial reporting. The program's purpose is to encourage governments to produce financial reports that demonstrate a "spirit of full disclosure" and that communicate clearly to interested parties such as taxpayers, investors, and creditors. The GFOA awards a Certificate only after an impartial panel determines that the government's CAFR meets the program's rigorous technical standards. The requirements include an audit of the general purpose financial statements. The State Auditor's Office and an independent certified public accounting firm jointly performed the audit, which resulted in an unqualified opinion--the best possible result of the audit process.