Accounting error of $ 1.8 billion over 10 years in South Carolina – the state treasurer may cost his job

For the first time in more than two centuries of American courses, legislators at South Carolina will try to remove an elected state official from his post.

On Wednesday, the Republican Senate decided to hold a listening session to decide whether he should be the State Secretary of the Republican State Cortis Luftis.It was removed from the officeMore than 1.8 billion dollarsAccounting errorThen fail to report the problem of the General Assembly. Loftis says that an attempt to overthrow him has political motives.

Loftis can be removed if two -thirds of the Senate and vote against it. At a hearing on April 21, Senators will make their case and have Loftis or his lawyer for three hours to respond. Then the house follows its example with their hearing.

The money that was not present

A58 pagesThe report issued last week on the accounting error said that South Carolina’s books were inaccurate for 10 years and are still not corrected. The state paid millions of dollars to criminal accountants who eventually decided that the missing money was not a cash that the state was never spent, but instead it was a series of errors in the budget of books and transferring accounts from one system to another that was not reconciled.

The members of the Senate wrote in their report, which includes more than the treasury secretary, “The state should not” not supervise continuous financial supervision – banking functions and investing in our state.600 pagesFrom the exhibitions.

Loftis replied by noting that he had won four elections since 2010, and called on the Senate’s investigation that he had grabbed power so that they could obtain support for a draft law to become the treasurer as a specific position.

“The financial threat to Carolina’s recently is not from mismanagement or lost money. The real danger comes from an uncompromising attack, and political motives for my office – which risk undermining the reputation of our financial state, increasing taxpayers costs, and stripping voters of their right to elect the treasury secretary who works for the benefit of the people, not private interests.”In a statement.

The origins of the error

Problems started when the situation changed computer systems in 2010S. Upon completion of the operation, workers were unable to know why books were more than a billion dollars of beating. A fund has been created to cover the accounting error, and more over the years has been added to the paper to maintain the balance of state books.

The error appeared after the financial observer observer Richard ExtromeHe resigned in March 2023On a different accounting error andReplace itI mentioned the mystery account.

The report said that Loftis was not only ignored or failed to find errors committed by his office, but also rejected attempts or slowing down independently in the problem.

Republican Senator Stephen Goldench said: “The treasury tried to cover up it.

A sub -committee for the Senate held lofts interrogation sessions under the department. It was controversial. Loftis criticized the papers, accused the members of the Senate of a charming chase and threatened to wake up and leave.

The confrontation with members of the Senate

One of the steps that occurred to angry Senators after one of the legislators asked Lovitis about the reason for not submitting reports about the state financing, as required by law. The treasurer said that it will publish an online report that could include bank account numbers and other sensitive information.

Senate members were in a stir the next day. They said that the report can be published easily without information that would allow Internet criminals to empty state accounts.

They had the ruler and the head of the state police found Loftis and demanded not to publish the report. The treasurer said he was following the instructions of the Senate.

“His flying mood and angry behavior destroy those who were accused of working with him to secure the financial situation in South Carolina,” said members of the Senate in a report last week.

The report also said that Loftis is responsible for spending millions of dollars by its lack of censorship and the lack of cooperation later to investigate the account.

What happens after that?

On Wednesday, the Senate approved the so -called “removal of the address” by voting without opposition. Legionships have never taken the constitutional step.

The future of the decision is a little mysterious in the House of Representatives, as no republics came out to call strongly to remove the treasurer.

Republican ruler Henry McMaster also suggested that removing Loftis from the office is very severe, but the ruler has no major role in this process.

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com