SC Gov. McMaster fires agency chief for contract to her husband’s employer
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster late Monday removed the director he appointed to the State Accident Fund over a recent contract worth upwards of $600,000 that the governor said was awarded to a company that hired her husband to do the work.
McMaster called for an investigation into whether ousted director Amy Cofield played a role in directing the state agency’s funding to her husband’s employer, and in effect to him, through the contract.
Cofield’s alleged actions have been referred to the state inspector general.
She told The State Monday night that she is “mortified” by the allegations of ethical wrongdoing.
“I would never, never, never, never have done anything wrong and jeopardized this job,” Cofield, whose salary was $135,280 a year, told The State. “I love this job.”
In a 25-page letter to Inspector General Brian Lamkin, McMaster said his office was flagged more than once about the State Accident Fund, including allegations about a contract “in which the director’s spouse was engaged, directly or indirectly, as a project manager or third-party consultant.”
McMaster told Lamkin that Cofield on or about Jan. 26 confirmed her husband, Jimmy Terrapin, had been hired as a contractor for Lexington-based information technology and staffing firm Globalpundits and was assisting as a project manager.
“These procurement actions raise significant ethical and legal questions about the conduct of employees at the State Accident Fund,” the governor said, announcing the immediate order. “In addition to removing the director immediately, I have requested that Inspector General Brian Lamkin conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether criminal violations of state law have occurred. This is key toward maintaining the public’s confidence in state government.”
A job order attached to McMaster’s letter to Lamkin says Cofield’s husband has project manager experience of more than 30 years, and it states he has managed large-scale projects for big companies worth $2 million and $3 million.
According to the job order McMaster included in the letter to the inspector general, the work was slated to start the first of January and end on Dec. 31, 2022, with a fee of $150 per hour for no more than 4,000 hours. The job order was signed on Jan. 6 by Joseph Doyle, listed on LinkedIn as vice president at Globalpundits, and Matthew Hansford, a program manager with the State Accident Fund.
Terrapin could not be reached for comment.
Cofield says her staff cleared deal
Cofield’s husband became involved in the project last year.
Cofield told The State late Monday that the State Accident Fund had been working on a new case management computer system to log the agency’s records, a venture the agency had tried to do some years before but were unsuccessful. As the agency went through the procurement process, Cofield said it was recommended the agency hire a full-time manager and the agency lacked someone with that experience.
The request for bid was sent out last fall, but Cofield said the agency received no response.
During that time, Cofield said she did “kind of joke around at work that it was funny” because her husband had that experience and also was being sought out by different head hunters to submit his name. But, she said, he declined because of Cofield’s position.
Cofield said she did not involve herself with conversations between her staff and the procurement office, adding the procurement office told her staff it was fine as long as Terrapin did not answer to Cofield and as long as the project was put out to bid again and the procurement rules were followed.
The bid was put out again and, again, Cofield said no one responded except a company with a proposed worker, Terrapin.
“I have like five directors over here. All five directors took part without me. I wasn’t even in the building. They met about it, they worked with procurement to make sure all the rules were followed and they were the ones who interviewed,” Cofield said, adding that she “ didn’t know the deals of the contractor” and “procurement ... signed the contract, not me.”
About a couple of weeks ago, Cofield said she received a call from the Governor’s Office asking for a step-by-step of what happened.
Cofield said she gave McMaster’s office all the details, never once detailing the same message to the governor.
On Monday at about 5:15 p.m., Cofield said she was notified by McMaster’s attorney that she was being fired.
“And at 6 o’clock it’s in the papers and I’m fired for unethical behavior,” Cofield said. “I’m mortified. If they had ever said, ‘No, you shouldn’t do this. No, it’s not good,’ anything, I would not have let them do it.”
Cofield said she asked the attorney whether she needed to cancel the contract.
“He made the comment, ‘Don’t worry, that’ll be next on the list,’ ” said Cofield, who said she can’t remember whether she ever signed anything with her husband’s name attached, such as a conflict statement. “All I told him, I signed everything procurement gave to me.”
Cofield alleged that Tommy Windsor, a former aide of McMaster’s and now director of programs at government affairs at the State Accident Fund who Cofield said helped hire her, was the person behind the complaint.
The State reached out to Windsor for comment. He did not immediately respond.
Cofield said months after her appointment, Cofield hired Windsor to head government affairs after Windsor sought out the position, following a conversation over a budget item that would put a military disability program under the agency — a shift Cofield said she was unhappy about because the State Accident Fund is not a military program.
Cofield said not too much later, she wanted to suggest a change to the state statute outlining requirements for her position to make sure the director had experience, including an insurance background, which was not in the requirements.
Cofield said Windsor told her that change will “make the governor mad,” limiting the pool of people he can nominate.
Months later, Cofield said Windsor inquired about becoming a chief of staff and she told him she did not need one.
She also said word got around that Windsor was openly speaking about her with her not present.
“Well, next thing you know I got a call from state HR that he called over there complaining and, lo and behold, I got a call from Tom Limehouse,” Cofield said, referring to McMaster’s attorney. “It’s nasty, because I know he was mad at me. He wanted that No. 2 job. He was not a No. 2 candidate.”
The department’s chief counsel, Erin Farthing, has been named acting director until the governor taps someone new, who will then have to be confirmed by the state Senate.
McMaster appointed Cofield to run the State Accident Fund and its roughly 80 employees in 2019.
A state agency that receives little if any media scrutiny, the State Accident Fund is responsible for workers’ compensation insurance for nearly 600 employers and 200,000 employees in the state, according to the agency website.
A University of South Carolina graduate, Cofield was a teacher before she entered law school in 1987, her bio states.
She became a contract attorney in 1991 for the State Accident Fund, which was her first workers’ compensation client, it says.
Cofield ran for state education superintendent as a “political novice” in 2014, but lost in a packed Republican primary.
Asked in The State’s questionnaire at the time whether she had ever been convicted of a crime, disciplined or faced an ethics complaint, Cofield answered, “No.”
“The worker’s comp community has known me for 30 years. I am very ethical. I’m mortified that people will look at this and think I have done something wrong when I asked, I mean, I had them ask and make sure before we made any move, and I would never want my agency to look bad,” Cofield said. “I don’t even have words for it.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 6:17 PM.
