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Expressing a “deep sense of gratitude to the people of South Carolina,” the Palmetto State’s long-serving comptroller general announced his impending resignation on Thursday afternoon – giving state lawmakers an opportunity to elect a successor to fill out his unexpired term.
Richard Eckstrom, 74, said he was resigning from his independently elected statewide office “effective Saturday, April 30, 2023.”
“I hope this will give members of the General Assembly time to begin a process to elect my replacement and, ultimately, put forth an amendment to the constitution to make the (office) an appointed position,” Eckstrom wrote in a letter to governor Henry McMaster.
Here is Eckstrom’s letter …
(Click to View)
Eckstrom’s resignation likely avoids a constitutional crisis over his impending removal from office by state lawmakers who are livid at him for having “willfully neglected his duties.”
A month ago, powerful S.C. Senate finance committee chairman Harvey Peeler authorized an investigation into Eckstrom after the veteran GOP politician acknowledged a $3.5 billion “anomaly” in the state’s general fund budget.
Eckstrom first reported the anomaly in early February.
“We discovered there were some differences in the way the state was accounting for cash that was transferred over to colleges and universities,” Eckstrom told a Senate panel in early February, noting these institutions were “the recipients of a huge amount of Covid money.”
That’s for damn sure …
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Last week, a bill to remove Eckstrom from office – S. 645 – was introduced in the S.C. Senate with a whopping thirty-seven co-sponsors. According to the legislation, “from 2012 to 2017 and 2019 to 2022, (Eckstrom) certified annual comprehensive financial reports that misstated the amount of cash in the state’s general fund.”
“The revelations of these misstatements could negatively impact the State’s credit rating,” lawmakers claimed.
Eckstrom was further accused of “failing to maintain internal controls” within his office and failing to address “material weaknesses and significant deficiencies” in his accounting processes.
Eckstrom was elected in November 2022 to a sixth term as comptroller. He ran unopposed in both the primary and general election cycles. In addition to his twenty years as comptroller, Eckstrom served a single four-year term as state treasurer from 1995-1999.
Whomever the General Assembly elects to take Eckstrom’s place will serve out the remainder of his unexpired term – which runs through January 2027.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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11 comments
Should have been fired immediately. This is a gross lack of leadership, and his failure to take responsibility frustrates me. I do not want this to be an appointed position. I want more people to run for it and allow the citizens of SC the opportunity to actually chose their Comptroller, and not have him elected by default.
If it’s an elected position, he can’t be “fired immediately…” which way do you want it?
SC needs recall voting.
Impeachment would be faster but the point still stands. What do you want, a comptroller who is responsible to the people or the governor?
The truth is that Eckstrom has done a great job during his tenure, this anomaly aside.
POS should have been voted out, decades ago.
I bet he had a “deep sense of gratitude” to the taxpayers all right. Big crap-eating grin and everything.
So, what about all the officials who. knew. about this before the last election and didn’t disclose to the public? McMaster being one along with some other higher ups in our state government
Shush, we don’t want to imply we want general accountability. We just want to show we are making someone accountable for something, so the public does not look at the rest of us.
?
You better get on Craigslist and sell Lucy’s diamond ring Charlie Brown.
Make him return all of his salaries