SCDSS Gets A Visit

WALLS CLOSING IN ON NIKKI HALEY’S SCANDAL-SCARRED WELFARE CZARINA

Federal and state law enforcement agents paid a visit to the offices of embattled S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) director Lillian Koller earlier this week, multiple sources familiar with the “raid” tell FITS.

No details were immediately available regarding the agencies participating in this unannounced visit  – or what they were looking for – but Gov. Nikki Haley’s “rock star” cabinet director has been dealing with multiple scandals for the past several months. In fact lawmakers of both parties – including one of Haley’s top allies – have called on the governor to fire Koller.

Haley has steadfastly refused to do so … taking to social media to question the motivation of Koller’s critics.

Events may soon force her hand, though …

In addition to a drumbeat of public criticism coming from all directions, sources tell FITS a damning audit of SCDSS is nearing completion over at the S.C. Legislative Audit Council (SCLAC). This report will be completed by late May or early June, we’re told.

FITS has been on top of the scandals at SCDSS from day one … doing the work the state’s mainstream media either could not or would not do.

Earlier this year one local television station finally got around to confirming a shocking story that was published by this website last summer. We’re referring, of course, to the tragic tale of Robert Guilyard Jr., a four-year-old boy who was placed into an abusive home by  Koller’s agency despite repeated warnings about his safety.

Because those warnings went unheeded, Guilyard was beaten to death in the home.

We called on Haley to fire Koller in the aftermath of that tragedy – not just because there was actual blood on her hands, but because the Guilyard tragedy was the latest in a long line of examples of her unfitness for office.

Since then there’s been a similar case involving another child death – with the agency recently confirming it had launched an “internal investigation” into that incident.

Beyond these tragic stories, Koller’s agency is replete with incompetence and mismanagement in its handling of our tax dollars. There’s the ongoing failure of SCDSS on the state’s child support enforcement database – or the total lack of follow-through Koller’s agency has shown with regard to a food stamp waiver touted by Haley in her so-called “war on fat.” There are also questionable consultant payments and allegations of cooked books at its “welfare to work” program (as well as its food stamp system).

(For a recent report detailing one of these scams, CLICK HERE).

Add it all up and you have what is hand-down the worst-managed agency in state government … which in South Carolina is saying something, trust us.