COLUMBIA, S.C. (HERE NEWS) – After release of scathing report, McMaster still maintains confidence in SC treasurer

Gov. Henry McMaster stands behind Treasurer Curtis Loftis amidst $1.8 billion discrepancy investigation

COLUMBIA, S.C. (HERE NEWS) – The day after the release of a scathing report that puts blame on Treasurer Curtis Loftis for a $1.8 billion debacle, Gov. Henry McMaster said he still has confidence in the ability of South Carolina’s elected treasurer to control the state’s money. But McMaster is calling on Loftis to communicate and work with other state agencies to resolve the issue — something a group of state senators and South Carolina’s comptroller general claim the treasurer has been loath to do to this point.

Senate report implicates Treasurer Curtis Loftis in $1.8 billion taxpayer money mystery

For months, a Senate subcommittee has been investigating nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money with no known owner which lawmakers didn’t know about until last fall. In a report it released Tuesday, the group holds Loftis responsible for this discrepancy, saying his office created the fund containing the money several years ago but never notified the legislature of its existence.

Loftis has claimed he invested the money and generated around $200 million in interest, which he said the legislature has spent, and asserted Comptroller General Brian Gaines, the state’s accountant, bore responsibility for telling lawmakers about it, which Gaines did last October. In a statement, Loftis said he did not plan to read the report, though his staff would, and decried it as character assassination from a group of lawmakers set on overturning his election to install their own puppet to control the state’s money.

Task force created to investigate the $1.8 billion mystery fund

In the report, senators outlined a series of interim recommendations, including a forensic audit to determine the money’s ownership, but they stopped short of calling for Loftis’ removal from office, at the governor’s request. Sen. Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley) and the chair of the subcommittee, said had McMaster not asked them to hold off, it would have been among their recommendations. The governor made the request after forming a new task force last week and he wants to give it time to work.

“The main thing is not to, at this point, is not to point blame or try to find error but to find out the answers about the money: where is it, where was it supposed to go, did any of it get to where it was supposed to go, what was it supposed to be used for, and if it’s really there,” McMaster told reporters Wednesday.