Lawmakers Want Expedited Workers’ Comp Audit

Several South Carolina Senators want the state’s financial investigations unit to get cracking on an audit of one of the most secretive, anti-competitive agencies in all of state government – South Carolina’s workers’ compensation commission.

As reported first on FITS earlier this year, thirteen S.C. Senators – led by Majority Leader Harvey Peeler – initially requested an audit of the workers’ compensation commission back in May.  Five months later, however, nothing has been done – and in the meantime our state’s competitive position continues to slip thanks to the unregulated awarding of exorbitant, subjective workers’ comp judgments.

“We’ve asked the LAC to do this and we’d love to have the information sooner rather than later,” said S.C. Sen. Phil Shoopman, one of the Senators who signed the original audit request.  “Getting this information prior to the start of the upcoming session would certainly help our efforts to make this system more accountable and more transparent.”

In 2008, South Carolina had the 12th highest workers’ comp premiums in the nation, and our state’s workers’ comp premiums for small businesses ranked 7th in the country, according to industry publications.  The Palmetto State’s rankings in both of these key categories placed it behind neighboring states.

“Establishing a fair and transparent workers’ comp system goes directly to the heart of our competitiveness as a state,” said Sen. Tom Davis, another State Senator who signed the original audit request.

FITS spoke with LAC director Tom Bardin last week, who claimed that his agency had its hands full with audits of the state Employment Security Commission, the Department of Corrections and the Lottery Commission, among others.

“It’s not that we’re dragging our feet, it’s that we’re fully staffed on other requests,” Bardin told FITS. “We haven’t forgotten about it, it is on our list of things to do.”

Bardin said that he had communicated a time frame for the audit’s completion to Sen. Ray Cleary, who had voiced his approval.

Not so, sources close to Cleary tell FITS.  In fact, Cleary has reportedly fired off a letter to the LAC urging them to get off the ball on the workers’ comp audit.

Obviously, we’re not disputing the LAC’s contention that it has its hands full.  With so many wasteful, inefficient and corrupt agencies in South Carolina, it’s not surprising that Bardin and his staff are busy as beavers.

However, we would argue that the workers’ comp audit should be bumped up on the agency’s priority list.

For example, the LAC is also working on a request from powerful Sen. Glenn McConnell regarding state air travel – which is essentially duplicating investigations that are currently underway at other state agencies.

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