PrintPrintIt’s time for the interim agency director and three appointed commissioners to go, said State Chamber CEO Otis Rawl, so that new officers could “get it going in the right direction.”
Staff Report
Published Feb. 12, 2010
The S.C. Chamber of Commerce called Friday for the leadership of the embattled Employment Security Commission to step down.
It’s time for the interim agency director and three appointed commissioners to go, said chamber CEO Otis Rawl, so that new officers could “get it going in the right direction.”
Samuel R. Foster is the interim executive director of the agency. The three board members are McKinley Washington Jr. of Ravenel, J. William McLeod, of Columbia and Becky D. Richardson of Columbia.
The agency was criticized in a January audit that found it failed to take action that might have prevented the state’s accumulation of a huge federal debt.
The Legislative Audit Council, acting upon a legislative request, examined how the commission functions. The audit comes as the Legislature is debating ways to revamp the agency. In his State of the State address last week, Gov. Mark Sanford asked that direct oversight of the agency be made part of the next governor’s cabinet.
The agency’s interim executive director, Samuel R. Foster, responded in a statement that much of the problem is related to the recession and that, of the measures suggested in the report, more than half are under way already and some others are a matter of opinion.
The agency should be restructured for better accountability, the audit recommended. Options include making it a full cabinet agency, with the executive director appointed by the governor, or having the governor appoint the commission, which then would hire the executive director.
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