Richard Eckstrom with 'Accounting for Dummies'

Mary Ann Chastain/AP

The longtime comptroller normal of South Carolina resigned on Thursday after he oversaw an incredible $3.5 billion accounting error.

Richard Eckstrom stop after a state Senate panel accused him of “will neglect of accountability” and stated he was once exclusively to blame for an ongoing reporting error that occurred in the 2010s.

At an introduction ceremony for his new chief of team of workers in 2009, Eckstrom brandished a ebook titled Accounting for Dummies and mentioned he intended to offer it to his new hire.

It turns out that under Eckstrom’s 20-yr tenure, South Carolina’s annual financial report “exaggerated the state’s cash balances for a decade with the aid of double counting the cash sent to varsities and universities.”

A junior staffer fixed the error, which started when the comptroller general’s place of job switched to a brand new information machine.

“I have never taken service to the state I love or the roles to which I’ve been elected frivolously, endeavoring to work with my colleagues… to be a powerful defender of the taxpayer and a just right steward of their exhausting-earned tax dollars,” Eckstrom wrote in his resignation letter to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster. “They deserve nothing less.”

The resignation got here lower than a month ahead of the Senate was once set to hold a vote on whether or not to eliminate Eckstrom. It’ll now appoint a alternative to serve the remainder of the time period, which ends in 2027.

As for Accounting for Dummies, the guide can also be purchased for round $20, which, if it contains steering on easy methods to steer clear of multibillion-greenback error, is fairly the investment.

The submit South Carolina Reliable with ‘Accounting for Dummies’ e Book Quits After Committing $3.5 Billion Accounting Error first appeared on Mediaite.