South Carolina’s top accountant is set to step down next month after overstating the state’s general fund balance by a cool $3.5 billion, according to a letter he wrote and hand-delivered to Gov. Henry McMaster on Thursday. In the letter, obtained by The Post and Courier, Richard Eckstrom said he would resign effective April 30 after serving as state comptroller for 20 years.
“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… to be a strong defender of the taxpayer and a good steward of their hard-earned dollars,” he wrote. McMaster accepted the resignation, according to the Associated Press. A Senate finance panel concluded last week that Eckstrom, 74, bore sole responsibility for the accounting blunder, which was made after the state began transitioning to new software in 2007. The error, which double-counted some of the money sent to colleges and universities, went uncorrected and grew exponentially larger until a junior staffer noticed and fixed it last year.
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Mr. Eckstrom later told reporters: “40 years is an awfully long time to serve as state comptroller. I knew it was time for me to step down.”
When a reporter corrected Mr. Eckstrom and told him that he had only been state comptroller for 20 years, Mr. Eckstrom said: “Are you sure it’s only been 20 years? Darn it! It’s that new software again, double-counting the numbers!”