Beaufort County Sheriff wants County to turn over financial audit/investigation

BEAUFORT COUNTY, SC (WSAV) – A battle is brewing between the Beaufort County government and the Beaufort County Sheriff over spending, and a criminal investigation.

The Beaufort County Sheriff says he wants to see what exactly was found, but the County isn’t budging.

Last week Beaufort County released a six page wrap up of an investigation into purchasing issues and potential money mismanagement by County employees.

In that document, the County admits that some staff failed to adhere to the P-Card guidelines for purchasing and there were “failings” in the system. However, the document says those issues resulted from “misfeasance rather than malfeasance.”, or unintentional, not intentional.

Beaufort County does admit that some of those failures were significant, and in a few instances even willful. However, it concluded that “no evidence of criminal activity has been discovered”.

As a result, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner’s Chief Deputy, Michael Hatfield, sent a letter to the County asking for an “unredacted and complete copy” of the full financial investigation and audit.

The letter said doing that would demonstrate Beaufort County Council’s “commitment to integrity, transparency and uniformity”, which new County Administrator Michael Moore has pledged moving forward.

Tanner told News 3 the County did talk about violations previously which were “not” outlined in this statement. Adding that this statement offers “no transparency” and the County may be hiding things from the public.

The County responded, sending a letter back to the Sheriff saying they can’t give him the report. They wrote the report is “protected by attorney client privilege” and Moore cannot provide it to the Sheriff.

Moore adds that the Council has “directed me to further investigate the appropriateness of problematic P-Card expenditures and procurements. I intend to pursue this endeavor thoroughly”.

County Administrator Moore does say in his response he will continue the investigation and “if matters arising to the level of criminal wrongdoing” are found, he “will not hesitate to seek the assistance and guidance of your office”.

Sheriff Tanner did not want to go on camera to speak directly to this issue.