S.C. governor creates task force to resolve $1.8 billion mystery
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS/AP) – A new task force has been created to get to the bottom of a $1.8 billion mystery at the South Carolina State House.
Gov. Henry McMaster formed the group after meeting Thursday with the heads of four state agencies.
“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 to WIS. " … 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.”
According to the governor’s office, the Department of istration will spearhead the task force.
McMaster, Department of istration Executive Director Marcia Adams, Treasurer Curtis Loftis, Comptroller General Brian Gaines, and State Auditor George Kennedy were all in Thursday’s meeting, along with staff from their offices and the Attorney General’s Office.
The task force’s creation comes days before the expected release of a report and recommendations from a Senate investigating $1.8 billion in unallocated state funds, which have been sitting in s for years with no known owners.
It’s still unclear where that money came from, but one of the state’s top lawmakers blamed Loftis, the elected state treasurer.
“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 claimed he invested the money, which made around $200 million in interest. He also pointed the finger at Gaines, the comptroller, for not communicating and shifting blame from his office to the treasurer’s office.
Gaines, meanwhile, testified it was Loftis’ responsibility to resolve the issue and to communicate the money’s existence to lawmakers, which Gaines did last fall.
McMaster appointed Gaines to comptroller, typically an elected position seen as the state’s ant, after the resignation of longtime Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom last year.
Eckstrom’s resignation followed the unraveling of a $3.5 billion ing error on the state’s books, because of money that had been double-counted for several years after South Carolina transitioned from one ing system to another.
But as opposed to that error, which was determined to only be on paper, this $1.8 billion is believed to be real money.
“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.
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