[{"_1":2,"_100":-5,"_101":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76,88],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6277821,"mediaKeyId","2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168","parentId",2646270,"title","SFAA director says treasurer's request to discuss bond approach was removed after members declined","audioSeconds",1508,"startMs",108095,"endMs",1616120,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168&start=108&end=1616","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168/thumbnail_108095.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6277821/South-Carolina/SFAA-director-says-treasurers-request-to-discuss-bond-approach-was-removed-after-members-declined","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6277821-c5e1178620ac08582c6d736a24d1b23e/orig.mp4?Expires=1771164457&Signature=kLBrUWQhs0mXLLtickajLQKi8Ufvtsg-3Pv1sXd66wKHnGaU-x1dKwlKY1ygW3dT0QfEBUVA4w5ghduyjhoFkip6r38qgWwQ7byZvW0lGpeUdGWlKEcUy~LoqqwgpJmgHb~Pz6fRtyGNNioDVyHmFBN8KtGDToafEeX9qVkNNOrV6C5LKn~haLpOU2hrgUrMuirl3HNb9oGHKGFDC5L~hoJBY519MSJ~1kc8U8vNJdxIzrKglyvTs-fdOE5MFja7Dt6NMguxBazSHNsS5NfdiVS~rcOzeLtUJvdeqwsSl-zQXPwlI6au0ldTNzyHVxDG1NUFj1Jm9pP4J6sDtWhldg__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","South Carolina Legislature","date","2025-03-11T00:00:00Z","article","Grant Gillespie, director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA), told the South Carolina Senate Finance Constitutional Subcommittee that the Treasurer’s Office requested an agenda item for the SFAA meeting on Feb. 4 to allow disclosure counsel to provide an update related to an ongoing SEC matter and bond issuance plans.

Gillespie said the Treasurer’s Office requested the item in January and that the placeholder on the SFAA agenda read \"update by disclosure counsel.\" He said liaison review occurred and that some members questioned why the item would need to be in executive session. \"It seemed that the majority of the board doesn't want this on the agenda,\" Gillespie said, and he notified members the agenda item would be taken off unless members objected. The item was removed.

Committee members pressed Gillespie about the reason for members' reluctance. Gillespie said members wanted more information about what they were being asked to hear and did not feel comfortable placing the item on the public agenda as described. Finance committee staff told the subcommittee that the Treasurer’s Office later submitted an agenda item with a description but that staff had not seen that version prior to the liaison review and that it may have been created afterward.

The discussion moved to whether a legal briefing by disclosure counsel would be appropriate for executive session under FOIA. Gillespie and the committee’s counsel explained that legal advice can be given in executive session and that doing so would be lawful in many circumstances, but multiple senators and staff said the standard for invoking executive session is high and requires sufficient information to justify closure. Quentin (finance staff) said staff had \"almost no information to go on\" when asked to advise whether executive session was warranted.

Senators asked whether the Treasurer was seeking to stop issuing long-term general obligation bonds in favor of bond anticipation notes. Gillespie said he did not have a definitive answer on whether the Treasurer currently could or could not issue GO bonds.

The committee did not take formal action on the matter during the hearing, but senators used the exchange to press for clearer agenda language and earlier sharing of details before liaison review. Several members said the Executive Session request and the subsequent removal of the item raised transparency concerns.

Ending: Senators said they will seek clearer disclosures on future agenda requests and expressed interest in further oversight of bond-issuance decisions.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","March 11, 2025 2:00 pm or at the Call of the Chair Senate Finance Committee -- Finance Constitutional Subcommittee on H.3430","oneSentenceSummary","Grant Gillespie, director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, told the Senate subcommittee that a Treasurer’s Office request for an \"update by disclosure counsel\" was removed from the SFAA agenda after members said they were uncomfortable and lacked sufficient information.","taxTitle","Finance, Standing, Senate, Committees, Legislative, South Carolina","taxId",17657,"location","South Carolina","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6277816,"Senate subcommittee to consider amendment to create appointed state auditor; bill carried over",667,5822400,6489460,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168&start=5822&end=6489","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168/thumbnail_5822400.jpg","/articles/6277816/South-Carolina/Senate-subcommittee-to-consider-amendment-to-create-appointed-state-auditor-bill-carried-over","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6277816-1d1182369b7c2a258f80bd4e198eda7a/orig.mp4?Expires=1771164457&Signature=BvLHp6~wSP5zSvj4Ki9buijPlKz4TJ7x1LrHZJZa4psfXcoW0dl~ulXrxcAglrSi6sNd7eT~PivvjMbgBeWSwkI7HQKoJAjXlNGbgO7EAXy1tmYIcnTgRdip-I9Ld5iaLcnb93QPqml-mH-ZEiT6B4thGQqF-8ZUx8fJDDF0fDroLtAUMmi5a-5-QNtuSsl-N~dTsO0zB6CpslcXRvl4vNixfUM~5mVBX2ghozcLzZLIHW~jK~bmx6qQhT1ntPUn4AffVgubucn9VDXYZ-qx8cuq657GC7Amo-06S3RM447saaLIylEGcaPQrY3sMnOn~~iYSs2E1fYoUkbeyyv7oQ__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Senate Finance Constitutional Subcommittee staff presented a proposed amendment to House Bill 3430 that would create a Department of Governmental Auditing and establish a state auditor appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Amanda (committee staff) summarized the amendment: the state auditor would serve a six-year term from July 1 of the appointing year to June 30 of the terminal year, be removable by the governor for cause, have salary set by the agency head salary commission, and employ deputy auditors, accountants, investigators and other professional staff. The amendment would require the new auditor to perform annual audits of financial statements prepared by the Treasurer’s Office, examine Treasurer’s Office accounts and banking institutions related to state transactions, and report apparent violations of law or malfeasance to the governor and appropriate officials. The amendment also created a division of local government services to audit county treasurers and required municipal and county audits be submitted to the new department.

Members raised implementation questions, including whether the proposed office currently has needed technical capacity and how much funding it would require. \"That type of expertise is not inexpensive,\" a senator said, and staff acknowledged the department would likely need additional funding and time to hire experts.

Several senators expressed support for creating the office as the appropriate check on the Treasurer and Comptroller General, while others said the question of whether those officers should remain elected or be made appointive merits separate debate. Senator from Williamsburg said the auditor would provide a needed check without changing the constitutionally elected status of the Treasurer and Comptroller General. Members agreed to take additional time to review the amendment and consult with staff.

At the meeting’s close, a motion was made and seconded to carry House Bill 3430 with the discussed amendment to the committee’s next meeting. The motion carried on a voice vote. The subcommittee then voted to adjourn until Thursday.

Ending: The subcommittee set the amendment for further consideration at its next meeting; senators asked staff to prepare cost and implementation details before final action.","Subcommittee staff presented an amendment to House Bill 3430 to create a Department of Governmental Auditing and an appointed state auditor; senators gave staff time to refine the proposal and the committee voted to carry the bill for further consideration.",{"_33":89,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":90,"_41":91,"_43":92,"_45":93,"_47":94,"_49":95,"_51":96,"_53":97,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":98,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":99,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6277826,"Alex Partners: $1.8 billion in Fund 30350993 came from conversion transfers; responsibility shared",4086,1561440,5648160,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168&start=1561&end=5648","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2646270-8ee27a6359f358b03b13f2e8f86d4168/thumbnail_1561440.jpg","/articles/6277826/South-Carolina/Alex-Partners-18-billion-in-Fund-30350993-came-from-conversion-transfers-responsibility-shared","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6277826-73561a5c028800461b6258163f92fb52/orig.mp4?Expires=1771164457&Signature=EE--n~6JrHpOGv-C1gABLgQ9B88Zy04zQ54Sln-~gGUUjY1X4l4bJ0J~ym1DY9aZtydWHMPW8IiGlAxWRUKr5MPl9n4aJu1GbcElJLJGZsq0u~P8LJlcb2bcHYCM3gofZtCiOFHIqiB40ScwkvQnrfxrXtjRaLfteIVj0xDoR~OSHTuAc4rmTqNofytsHxRdmQ3SQqRw5egKPMb3qlt1pTKR2n4577GmdDhPznTn2yuVYNf8vXpzl5EgqKFu9ocJ7N1svIG3GyjGh5nQSU3qvSkeuUeM8HwivrzD2ap5J0H5CZFyuhqK2ESI8vB7Kuw5MvIC4tm03loeyzXZ0-J89A__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Susan Merkel and David Bly of Alex Partners told the South Carolina Senate Finance Constitutional Subcommittee that $1.8 billion recorded in fund 30350993 arose when balances were transferred during a systems conversion and not because of a single office’s unilateral error.

\"We believe that it was joint responsibility,\" Alex Partners consultant Susan Merkel said during testimony to the panel, summarizing the firm’s finding that both the State Treasurer’s Office and the Comptroller General’s Office were involved in the entries and transfer activity that produced the large balance.

The consultants described the mechanics this way: the Comptroller General’s Office originally created certain ACFRA business-area entries used in the conversion process; the problematic result occurred when those balances were moved into Fund 30350993. From Alex Partners’ review of journal activity, four usernames posted the transfers: Catherine Kipp, Martin Taylor, Doug Cooper and a system-assisted BATCH entry. Merkel and Bly told the committee the overwhelming majority of the postings were performed by staff assigned to the State Treasurer’s Office (STO), with involvement or awareness by Comptroller General Office (CGO) personnel in many cases.

Bly told senators the discrepancy became visible at the fund level because reconciliations had been done only at the account level. \"If you only reconcile at the account level ... you would not see the components by fund,\" he said, adding that Alex Partners recommended reconciling at both account and fund levels.

Committee members asked when STO personnel first recognized a problem. Alex Partners said auditors began raising reconciliation issues in early November 2017, and conversion entries on Nov. 2 and Nov. 7 (years described in the testimony) contributed to subsequent balances that reached $1.56 billion and later $1.8 billion. Merkel said a March 2018 proposal from a Treasurer’s Office employee described the remaining balance as a \"prior period adjustment,\" and that the CGO and external auditors counseled recording the amounts as a liability instead of a write-off.

Merkel and Bly declined to provide an opinion about whether cash and investments were properly managed by the Treasurer’s Office because that was outside Alex Partners’ scope. \"It was not part of our scope to go in and determine how they managed their cash and investments,\" Bly said. However, both consultants told members that the presence of the $1.8 billion balance in a fund that should have netted to zero represented an accounting problem.

Alex Partners also told the committee it did not find that the Comptroller General’s Office alone was responsible. Bly said: \"That is not reflected in our report nor is our opinion that it was solely the responsibility ... of the Comptroller General’s Office.\" Merkel added that Alex Partners had access to CGO crosswalks for fiscal 2022 and 2023 and that certain documents Alex Partners reviewed were found in CGO shared folders, not supplied by the CGO to Alex Partners.

Senators pressed whether officials had a duty to notify the General Assembly when reconciliation problems first appeared. Members repeatedly raised concerns that auditors and agency staff saw reconciliation shortfalls across multiple years but that the legislature was not alerted earlier. Alex Partners responded that staff appeared to have believed they were correcting problems at the time and that the entries were not understood to be erroneous in a way that triggered external notification.

The committee members and Alex Partners also discussed the provenance of some documents and the limits of the review. Merkel said Alex Partners did not evaluate the Treasurer’s Office cash-management practices and corrected several factual statements in a Treasurer-issued Feb. 26 briefing that Alex Partners found misleading or inaccurate.

The subcommittee did not take formal action on Alex Partners’ recommendations at that meeting, but senators indicated they would continue follow-up, including legislative and oversight options.

Ending: Alex Partners recommended greater fund-level reconciliation and additional audit transparency; senators pressed for answers about why the discrepancy persisted across years and whether earlier notice to the General Assembly should have been required.","Alex Partners consultants told the Senate Finance Constitutional Subcommittee that $1.8 billion appearing in Fund 30350993 resulted from transfers made during a financial-system conversion, and that responsibility for the incorrect fund balance was shared between the Office of the State Treasurer and the Comptroller General’s Office.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

SFAA director says treasurer's request to discuss bond approach was removed after members declined

Senate subcommittee to consider amendment to create appointed state auditor; bill carried over

Alex Partners: $1.8 billion in Fund 30350993 came from conversion transfers; responsibility shared