Financial Transparency

Transparent Utah

Transparent Utah was first authorized by the Utah Legislature in 2008 with the goal of the creation of a website to ensure state and local government financial information is readily available to the public. That website, Transparent.Utah.gov, went live in 2009 with state-level data and was run by the State Division of Finance. Since that time, the majority of Utah’s approximately 1000 public entities, including state and local governments, school districts, and special service districts, have posted to the website over 250 million records.

Transparent Utah permits taxpayers to view, track, and analyze the use of taxpayer money, including employee compensation and payments to vendors. In addition, power users, including educational institutions, non-profits, and community organizations, can curate and analyze the data.

Utah Unclaimed Property

Millions of dollars in lost or unclaimed money are turned over to the State of Utah every year. MyCash is the official government website for managing and returning this unclaimed property to the residents of Utah.

Any financial asset with no activity by its owner for an extended period of time is considered unclaimed property. This includes unclaimed wages or commissions; savings and checking accounts; stock dividends; insurance proceeds; underlying shares; customer deposits or overpayments; certificates of deposit; credit balances; refunds; money orders; and safe deposit box contents. The organization holding the potential unclaimed property makes every effort to contact the owner and establish activity through an online login, written correspondence, a withdrawal or deposit, or an update to personal information. If these attempts do not produce activity, the asset is reported to the state of the owner’s last known address.

Unclaimed property laws began in the United States as a consumer protection program and they have evolved to protect not only the owners, but their heirs and estates as well. Once property is in the custody of the state and its unclaimed property program, an aggressive outreach effort begins through mailings, social media, advertisements, and local media coverage. The state will maintain custody of the property in perpetuity until the rightful owner or heirs come forward to claim.

Search now to see if there is lost money waiting for you! It’s quick, it’s free and it’s yours.

State Of Utah Audit Reports

The Office provides Utah taxpayers and government officials with an independent assessment of financial operation, statutory compliance, and performance management for state and local government.

The Office is divided into functional groups, Financial Audit, Performance Audits and Data Analysis, Special Projects and Local Government. The State Privacy Officer is also part of the Office. Information and audit reports from each group are available.

Reports from at least the last 9 years are immediately downloadable from the site, and many older reports are available as well.  All items are publicly available and no GRAMA request is required to obtain any of this information from the Office.

Local and State Government Reports are public record and can be viewed here.