South Carolina comptroller to resign after $3.5B error

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a $3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.

The state’s chief accountant will leave the elected post he has held for 20 years on April 30, according to a copy of the resignation letter obtained by The Associated Press.

“I have never taken service to the state I love or the jobs to which I have been elected lightly, endeavoring to work with my colleagues, from constitutional officers to members of the General Assembly, to be a strong defender of the taxpayer and a good steward of their hard-earned tax dollars,” Eckstrom wrote in the March 23 letter to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. “They deserve nothing less.”

The blunder’s revelation last month brought mounting scrutiny. House lawmakers called for an impeachment inquiry. The Senate panel investigating the error issued a damning report last week that suggested Eckstrom resign or face removal “for willful neglect of duty.”

Senators’ report rested responsibility for the mapping error that began during the state’s transition to a new internal information system solely with Eckstrom. State officials testified that Ecksrom ignored auditors’ yearslong warnings of a “material weakness” in his office and flawed cash reporting.