The council shall provide for an independent annual audit of all financial records and transactions of the county and any agency funded in whole by county funds and may provide for more frequent audits as it considers necessary. Special audits may be provided for any agency receiving county funds as the county governing body considers necessary. The audits must be made by a certified public accountant or public accountant or firm of these accountants who have no personal interest, direct or indirect, in the fiscal affairs of the county government or any of its officers. The council may, without requiring competitive bids, designate the accountant or firm annually or for a period not exceeding three years. The designation for any particular fiscal year must be made no later than thirty days after the beginning of the fiscal year. The report of the audit must be made available for public inspection. A copy of the report of the audit must be submitted to the Comptroller General no later than January first each year following the close of the books of the previous fiscal year.

If the report is not timely filed, or within the time extended for filing the report, funds distributed by the Comptroller General to the county in the current fiscal year must be withheld pending receipt of a copy of the report.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 14-3712; 1975 (59) 692; 1977 Act No. 96; 1988 Act No. 365, Part II, Section 3, eff July 1, 1988; 2002 Act No. 356, Section 1, Pt XI.P, eff July 1, 2002; 2005 Act No. 164, Section 36, eff June 10, 2005.

Editor's Note

1988 Act No. 365, Part II, Section 1, provides as follows:

"The General Assembly finds that numerous changes have been made at the local levels of government in South Carolina since the early part of this century. New laws have been enacted, technological progress has been made, and the art of accounting has changed, all of which have impacted upon the reporting requirements of the local governments as well as the State. Many of the laws pertaining to property tax and local financial reporting procedures existing prior to Home Rule have become archaic, irrelevant, and cumbersome since their enactment early in this century. Many of these laws now foster inefficiency, duplication of effort, and a waste of resources. The purpose of this part is to amend and repeal those statutes as necessary in order to eliminate unnecessary procedures and reports, to eliminate waste associated with the duplication of effort, and to provide for more pertinent data from those reports found to be necessary."

Effect of Amendment

The 1988 amendment made grammatical changes, and added the last sentence, relating to a copy of the report of audit being submitted to the Comptroller General.

The 2002 amendment added the second undesignated paragraph relating to failure to file the report on time.

The 2005 amendment, in the first undesignated paragraph, at the end of the fourth sentence substituted "three years" for "one year".