On February 26, 2007, Governor Sanford issued Executive Order #2007-06 establishing the nine-member GovernmentEfficiency and Accountability Review (GEAR) Committee. Through the order, the Governor instructed our committee to“analyze the systems and services within and provided by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board in an effort to propose changes which will reduce costs, increase accountability, improve services, consolidate similar functions, return functions to the private sector and help South Carolina become more competitive in a world economy.”