Columbia, South Carolina – A new investigative team has been set up to explore a significant issue involving $1.8 billion at the South Carolina State House. This initiative was started by Governor Henry McMaster, who, after discussions on Thursday with leaders from four major state agencies, decided to establish the task force.
“He charged them to work together as a group in order to determine the existence, purpose and intended destination of the $1.8 billion in question before July 1,” Brandon Charochak, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement.”… The governor believes the public’s confidence is best maintained when elected officials and agencies work together to solve problems through collaboration, cooperation and communication.”
The governor’s office announced that the Department of Administration, led by Executive Director Marcia Adams, will take the lead in this task force. The meeting included McMaster, Adams, Treasurer Curtis Loftis, Comptroller General Brian Gaines, and State Auditor George Kennedy, along with their staff and representatives from the Attorney General’s Office.
The formation of this task force precedes the anticipated publication of a report and recommendations from a Senate committee looking into the $1.8 billion of state funds that have been unclaimed for several years. The source of these funds remains a mystery, although a prominent state legislator has pointed fingers at Loftis, the state treasurer.
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“Our observations are that these problems originated in the treasurer’s office, that you have not accepted responsibility for them in seven years since they occurred, and that the records of the treasury are mess,” Sen. Larry Grooms, R – Berkeley, said to Loftis during an April 2 Senate Finance subcommittee meeting that stretched several hours, during most of which senators grilled the treasurer.
Loftis, the Treasurer, stated that he invested the $1.8 billion, which generated approximately $200 million in interest. He criticized Gaines, the Comptroller, for poor communication and for trying to shift the blame from his own office to the Treasurer’s office. On the other hand, Gaines argued that it was Loftis’ duty to address the problem and to inform lawmakers about the existence of the money, something Gaines himself did last fall. Governor McMaster appointed Gaines to the role of Comptroller, a position usually elected and regarded as the state’s chief accountant, following the resignation of the long-serving Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom last year.
Eckstrom stepped down amid revelations of a $3.5 billion mistake in the state’s financial records, a blunder stemming from funds being counted twice over several years as South Carolina moved from one accounting system to another. Unlike that incident, which turned out to be a mere accounting error, the $1.8 billion in question is considered actual money.
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“After a year of confusion and division it is heartwarming to see collaboration and communication. Many thanks to the Governor, the four agency heads and their staffs for making this happen,” Loftis wrote Friday on his Facebook page.
