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S.C. Comptroller Fried by $3.5B Error

Mistake mathSouth Carolina’s elected comptroller general, Richard Eckstrom, is resigning after the heat grew intense because of $3.5-billion error in state financial reporting. A CPA, Eckstrom, had held the job for 20 years.

According to an account by the Associated Press’s James Pollard, an S.C. State Senate report found that Eckstrom was solely responsible for the $3.5-billion mapping error, during the transition to a new IT system from 2011 to 2017. State official testified he ignored years-long warnings of a “material weakness” in his office and flawed cash reporting.

Eckstrom claimed the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report was exaggerated.

The Senate panel investigating the blunder accused Eckstrom of “willful neglect of duty”. The AP article said Pollard, a decades’-long friend of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, had said as recently as last week he would not resign. McMaster accepted the resignation effective April 30.

The Senate panel investigating the financial misstatement issued a damning report last week accusing Eckstrom of "willful neglect of duty.” As recently as last week, however, Eckstrom had said he would not resign.

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