A $1.8 billion accounting error snowballed over 10 years in South Carolina—and could cost the state’s treasurer his job

For the first time in more than two centuries, as a US state, South Carolina’s lawmakers are going to try to remove the elected state official.

The Republican dominant Senate decided on Wednesday to make a court hearing to decide whether the Republican State Treasurer should behas been removed from the officeMore than $ 1.8 billionAccounting Error:and then unable to report the problem to the General Assembly. Loftis says that attempt to push him out is a political motive.

Loftis can be removed if two-thirds of the Senate and home votes against him. At the April 21 court hearing, the senators will present their work, and the attic or his lawyer will have to answer. Then the house would be followed by a claim.

Money that did not exist

Eght58 pagesThe report issued last week states that the books of South Carolina were inaccurate for 10 years and continue to be corrected. The state paid millions of dollars to forensic accounts, which eventually decided that the state had never spent the missing amount, but instead never reconciled.

The state must “not tired” ongoing fiscal control, the banking and investment functions of our state – continuous inefficiency. If the cashier cannot maintain the cashier600 pagesto exhibits.

Loftis replied that he had won four choices and called the Senate Investigion to be attractive to make the treasurer a appointed position.

“The financial threat of South Carolina is not mismanagement or absence.In the statementA number

The origin of the error

The problems started in the 2010s the state computer systems have changed. When the process is over, the workers could not find out why books were more than $ 1 billion from a knife. A fund was created to cover the accounting error, and more than years he was added to the paper to keep the state’s books balanced.

The error has been published after Comptroller General Richard Eckstromresigned in March 2023about another accounting error andher replacementreported the mystical account.

The report says that Loftis is not only ignored or failed to find errors made by its office, but also rejected or slowed the attempts to explore the problem independently.

“The cashier tried to cover them. He covered it for a better part of seven to eight years, “said Republican Sainten Goldforn.

The Senate subcommittee has heard hearings under the oath of Loftis inquiry. They were arguable. Loftis hit the newspapers, senators accused senators and threatened to get up and leave.

Showdown senators

A movement that the angry senators took place after the legislator asked Loftis why lawsuits on state finance. The cashier noted that he would publish the report, which may include bank account numbers and other sensitive information.

The next day, the senators were hectic. They said that the report could be easily published without information that would allow cybercriminals to empty state accounts.

They had the governor and the head of state, the olives and demand that he did not publish the report. Treasurer said he was just following the Senate instructions.

“His unstable temperament and angry behavior are destroyed by those who are accused of working with him to ensure the financial position of South Carolina,” the senators wrote.

The report also states that Loftis is responsible for millions of dollars to be spent through lack of control and lack of investigation into account.

What happens next?

The Senate confirmed on Wednesday, which is called the “Removal of Action” by listening to voice voting without opposition. Legislators have never taken a conclusion in its conclusion.

The future of the resolution is slightly more gloomy in the house, where no republican came to call the treasurer’s removal.

Republican praise. Henry Macmast also offered to remove the removal from the office too sharp, but the governor has no play in the process.

This story was originally shown Fortune.com