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REVENUE EMPLOYEES DISCIPLINED FOR CAR TAX ERRORS

by LEIGH STROPE

The S.C. Revenue Department has disciplined employees after the agency's auditor found a lack of supervision and poor communication were to blame for some residents being overcharged on automobile taxes.

"We are working to make this right for everyone," Revenue Department Director Betsy Carpentier said Wednesday. "And I pledge to you that this will not happen again."

As many as 75,000 vehicles may have been overassessed on tax bills for January and February because the agency used incorrect values for some vehicles in a guidebook that counties use to figure the tax.

Two employees who entered the incorrect data no longer work at the department. The supervisor was suspended without pay for five days, demoted and transferred to a field office, Carpentier said. Three other employees were reprimanded and ordered to receive additional training and weekly performance reviews.

That action was taken after an investigation by the agency's internal auditor was completed. The Revenue Department released a summary of the findings Wednesday, but would not make available the full report. Department spokeswoman Vicki Ringer said the agency was considering releasing the full report.

The Revenue Department in a news release said its auditor found that vehicle assessment value guides generated in October 1999 were not properly edited before counties received them. Also, property-division employees were aware of problems in early November, but they did not realize the magnitude and did not inform their supervisors.

The agency's news release also said Carpentier met with Richland County officials Jan. 4 and instructed property-division employees to correct problems. She was told that the errors had been addressed and improvements were being researched. But no one realized the magnitude of the problems until February.

Internal e-mail correspondence released by the Revenue Department shows employees did not realize the scope of the problem and tried to downplay it. A Feb. 8 message by Ringer said a Spartanburg Herald-Journal reporter "thought the sky was falling."

"I told the reporter that it was a minor computer glitch, that it had been caught and corrected and a few vehicles were affected," Ringer's note said. "This could be another one of those stories that seems like no big deal -- but then you wake up and see it above the fold on the front page of The State paper."

Taxpayers who were overcharged will receive refund checks automatically from their counties. The Revenue Department will pay $1 to counties for each refund check to cover expenses.

The department also has corrected the automobile values and delivered new guides to counties. Carpentier has asked some of her key staffers to research similar tax-assessment operations in other states to look at making improvements.

Gov. Jim Hodges is concerned that taxpayers were overcharged, but he continues to support Carpentier, whom he appointed last year, said the governor's spokeswoman, Nina Brook.

"Long-term, he's got to see that the Revenue Department is staying on top of this situation and ensuring the data they give out is always good and their employees are always following the right procedures," Brook said.

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 25, 2000

Answers

Dee, at least SC has the grace to follow its auditors' recommendations.After picking up a thread here I started checking our State Auditors (Texas) reports which are posted to the web.The Office of the Attorney General just got warned about an erroneous child support base by the SAO. With their usual a** over teakettle approach, they just put in a new interactive system to track child support accounts. Being curious I had a friend punch in her social security number and child's birthdate-no other info needed to access the "account". What she found was off the wall.There's not even supposed to be a case, but there sure was one on TAG data base.Looks like another audit should be done. The thing that's so disturbing is the ease of access: even if the data base were accurate, it's not marginally secure and this deals with women, children and non- custodial parents who may in fact be meeting their obligation but are being shown delinquent by computerized records. This has serious implications for Texans. People had better wake up fast to what's going on in the country. .

-- little wifey (wifey@home.com), February 26, 2000.

Thank you for your input on this Little Wifey.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 26, 2000.