In the vast majority of cases, the result of a cash collapse is likely to be: there is less than was initially hoped or expected. But not in the US state of South Carolina. There, auditors found a total of 1.8 billion US dollars (around 1.66 billion euros), as “Spiegel” quoted from a report from the AP news agency.
“It’s like you go into your bank and the bank president says: We have a lot of money in our vault, but we just don’t know who it belongs to,” says Republican Senator Larry Grooms, comparing the situation in his state and emphasizing this , that so far no one knows where the money originally comes from. The total sum is made up of an existing capital stock and the interest earned with it.
But what’s the deal with the mysterious bank account? State accountants are currently trying to solve the mystery surrounding the account. A Senate committee was set up to investigate the case and was chaired by Grooms. What is clear so far is that attempts have been made in the past to bring the state’s accounting into balance when it got out of balance. According to the responsible committee, money was moved into the account from somewhere, as summarized by the Swiss newspaper “Blick”.
It also seems clear that in the responsible financial administration the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. “Apparently there is a lack of communication between the Treasury and the state auditor’s office. Now the state wants to take its time to decide what should happen with the money,” writes “Blick”.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, when asked what to do with the money, said, “That’s a lot of money and there’s no reason to rush to spend it,” according to the AP.
Sources: “Spiegel”, “Blick”
