Following the release of a 2019 financial audit, North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell wants the agency to replace two top officials. | Flickr
Following the release of a 2019 financial audit, North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell wants the agency to replace two top officials. | Flickr
North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell wants two North Carolina Department of Transportation officials replaced after another state audit was critical of the agency.
“Since 2019, NCDOT overspent by at least $2 billion and eviscerated the Highway Trust Fund by over $1 billion,” Folwell said in a July 15 statement posted to the Treasury website about the 2019 audit. “This overspending resulted in NCDOT going to the North Carolina General Assembly and getting a bailout costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Folwell said in the statement that he wants the Transportation Department's chief operating and financial officers.to be replaced. He made the request to Transportation Department Secretary J. Eric Boyette.
"The treasurer’s office stands ready and I hope that Secretary Boyette will take this agency in a new and fiscally responsible direction. Citizens deserve a stable and solvent DOT," Folwell said in the statement.
The Transportation Department's financial actions threaten the state’s AAA bond rating, Folwell said in the statement.
“For over two years, the NCDOT has been writing checks it couldn’t cash, harming taxpayers, road users and vendors,” he said in the statement. “Getting it right and keeping it right are requirements for issuing more debt on behalf of the NCDOT.”
The audit found that the agency overspent $39 million on pay raises in 2018, The Center Square reported on July 9.
“We need to keep Treasurer Folwell in place to continue to be a major watchdog for our state,” the Mecklenburg Republican Party said on Facebook.
Folwell is up for reelection this year facing Democratic challenger Ronnie Chatterji.
Alerts Sign-up