South Carolina’s top accountant to resign after US$3.5-billion error
COLUMBIA, S.C. –
Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign subsequent month after a US$3.5 billion accounting error within the year-end monetary report he oversaw.
The state’s high accountant will go away the elected submit he has held for 20 years on April 30, in line with a replica of the resignation letter obtained by The Associated Press.
“I have never taken service to the state I love or the jobs to which I have been elected lightly, endeavoring to work with my colleagues, from constitutional officers to members of the General Assembly, to be a strong defender of the taxpayer and a good steward of their hard-earned tax dollars,” Eckstrom wrote within the March 23 letter to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. “They deserve nothing less.”
The blunder’s revelation final month introduced mounting scrutiny. House lawmakers known as for an impeachment inquiry. The Senate panel investigating the error issued a damning report final week that advised Eckstrom resign or face removing “for willful neglect of duty.” As just lately as final Wednesday, Eckstrom had stated he wouldn’t stop.
Senators’ report rested accountability for the mapping error — which grew through the state’s transition to a brand new inside info system from 2011 to 2017 — solely with Eckstrom. State officers testified that Eckstrom ignored auditors’ yearslong warnings of a “material weakness” in his workplace and flawed money reporting.
Eckstrom has stated the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report overstated the state’s money place by double counting the cash despatched to high schools and universities. The mistake went unsolved till a junior staffer mounted the error this fall.
Officials have stated the misstatement didn’t impression the precise state price range. But lawmakers initially alarmed by Eckstrom’s inconsistent testimony slammed the failure to satisfy one in all his major constitutional duties of publishing an correct account of state funds.
The fallout for the state company that usually flies underneath the radar is predicted to proceed. A Senate subcommittee just lately accepted a joint decision that will let voters resolve whether or not the comptroller basic ought to proceed as an elected place or be appointed by the governor. Eckstrom reiterated his assist for that change Thursday in his resignation letter.
The subsequent comptroller basic can also lead a a lot weaker workplace. The investigating panel advised its duties be transferred to a number of companies. State Treasurer Curtis Loftis, an elected Republican, has testified his workplace might take in the primary duties.
A licensed public accountant, Eckstrom, 74, spent 4 years as state treasurer earlier than assuming his present workplace. He has run unopposed previously two elections and final confronted a Republican major challenger in 2010.
