New Castle County, Del. Takes Historic Step to Increase Government Transparency

WILMINGTON, DE--(Marketwired - Jul 10, 2017) - County Executive Matthew Meyer today unveiled New Castle County's Open Checkbook (http://checkbook.nccde.org), the most comprehensive transparency initiative in county government history. This fully searchable website connects the public with detailed expenditure data across county departments and features interactive tools that allow users to browse and analyze information through maps, charts, and graphs. It provides information through a searchable database that allows users to view, sort and download information by county department, vendor, category, and fund.

"Trust in government is built on transparency," said County Executive Meyer. "I ran for office on a commitment to making county government more transparent and the Open Checkbook delivers on that commitment. Just as you can go online and view your own personal banking expenditures, you now have that same access to expenditures made by New Castle County. I invite you to explore this site to deepen your knowledge and understanding of county government, and I encourage you to use this information to help us identify ways to provide county services more efficiently and responsively."

New Castle County's Open Checkbook is supported by software-as-a-services provider, Socrata, the market leader in making existing government data discoverable, usable, and actionable for government workers and the people they serve.

Navigation through Open Checkbook is easy:

• The main page provides an overview of total county government spending, highlights spending by department, vendor, and category and features quick links that provide answers to common questions.
• The site allows visitors to view information through a summary that features charts and graphs, and in checkbook view that presents data in spreadsheet form.
• Users can drill down to view information at the individual transaction level which provides detail on vendor, amount, payment date, and fund from which each expenditure was made.
• The site features a search function that provides navigation by keyword.
• Every page on the site can be shared with others through built-in links to Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

"Financial transparency is an important policy goal and I have strongly supported our Council-led effort to publish spending data online for more than a decade," said County Councilman and Council Finance Committee co-chair John Cartier. "This new interactive website builds on this effort with a new powerful level of sophistication and detail that gives residents greater insight and clarity into our County finances."