Hearing date set on whether to oust SC treasurer after $1.8B accounting error. What to know
South Carolina senators calling for the removal of state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office have now planned when and how the hearing will take place.
When: The hearing is scheduled for noon, Monday April 21, the day following Easter Sunday.
Where: The hearing will take place in the Senate chamber and the entire Senate will sit as a committee of the whole.
Who will speak: State Sens. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, and Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, are slated to present the case to remove Loftis and will have 90 minutes to speak.
Loftis and his lawyer, if he chooses to have one, will then have three hours to speak against his removal.
Grooms and Goldfinch would then have 30 minutes for rebuttal.
All will be under oath.
What about the other senators? Each member of the senate would have 10 minutes to ask questions of Loftis, his attorney, Grooms or Goldfinch after the rebuttal.
What’s required for removal? Senators are using a clause in the state constitution that allows for removal of statewide officers for willful neglect of duty with a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the Legislature. If senators approve the Loftis resolution, it will be sent to the House for its consideration.
The process is commonly referred to as impeachment-light. It is for instances when actions don’t rise to the level of a serious crime or misconduct.
How did we get here? A Senate Finance Committee panel has been investigating accounting issues in the state’s financial reporting, which have led to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Over the last two years it has looked into a $1.8 billion accounting error and found the treasurer, comptroller-general and state auditor’s offices all were aware of the accounting issue.
The then comptroller-general and auditor have since resigned over the accounting issues, but Loftis has refused to do so. Loftis on Wednesday confirmed he would seek reelection.
