LAURINBURG — The Scotland County Board of Commissioners went into closed session during its Monday night meeting to discuss the Industrial Development Funds Grant mistakes that cost taxpayers $575,000.
Questions and concerns came about after it was discovered the grant process was not performed properly, not only once, but twice on two projects with Edwards Wood Products.
State Auditor Beth Wood and another members of her staff attended the meeting to try and bring some clarification to board members on the topic.
“During the closed session, the state auditors informed us that when they have allegations and do not find anything substantial, they do not make a report,” said Commissioner Whit Gibson to WLNC’s Sandy Callan. “When they do not find anything, which in this case they did not, they do not file a report. They informed us that they did not find anything fraudulent or deceptive even though there were problems and mistakes made, none of those rose to the level of fraudulent.”
Gibson also said that, even with that information, the IDF Committee will continue to meet.
“We still have matters we need to address and the purpose of making this committee was to find out as much as we could and make recommendations to the board,” said Gibson, “and we still have that to complete.”
Gibson went on to say he is hopeful this will be complete before the end of the month.
Commissioner Tim Ivey said the board didn’t learn anything new in the closed session that either the board or the committee didn’t already know.
“We did receive some direction on how things may progress from here,” said Ivey. “We will have another committee meeting on Nov. 10 at 11 a.m., at which time we plan to talk to the finance director of the county who was not available last week.
“After that meeting, I think we can then put a final report together for the whole board with our recommendations of any actions we think need to occur,” added Ivey.
Commissioner Darrell “B.J.” Gibson agreed with Ivey, saying there was no new information from the auditors.
“She confirmed her previous statements of there being no criminal findings in their investigation,” said Darrell Gibson. “However her wisdom and advice in this situation, our ongoing role as commissioners and her overall insight was valuable as well as very much appreciated.
“We recognize that we have internal issues that we must address and improve,” continued Darrell Gibson. “I am confident that using their wisdom and the information shared by our state auditor, our committee will continue their investigation and bring us an effective recommendation soon.”
The Scotland County Board of Commissioners will meet for its December meeting on Dec. 6 at 7 p.m.
JJ Melton can be reached at jmelton@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.