Beaufort County has new CFO who promises to tackle transparency issues after Greenway-era
When Pinky Harriott was asked to return to her local government roots as Beaufort County’s chief financial officer, she faced a pressing question: did she want to step back into a county plagued by secrecy and a lack of accountability?
“There’s no secret here,” Harriott said. “The past year-and-a-half has been horrible.”
She alluded to the “malfeasance” experienced under former County Administrator Eric Greenway, whose audit report on spending and contracts still remains under wraps with the South Carolina’s Attorney General’s office. She knew that accepting the role would require her to confront the county’s challenges head-on and institute meaningful changes.
“For me, as a local Beaufortonian, I’m homegrown from Beaufort County — I left for about 10 years and came back because this is where my family is. I grew up here. I went to school here,” she said. “I’m ready to turn the page. I’m really tired of hearing negative, nasty things about our county and unfortunate things that have occurred in the past.”
Harriott officially stepped into her role as Beaufort County’s new chief financial officer on Nov. 25. Tasked with overseeing the county’s budget and procurement finance divisions, as well as ensuring compliance with financial audits, she has one mission: to restore fiscal transparency and rebuild public trust.
A plan to restore trust after Greenway
Before accepting her new position, Harriott served as assistant vice chancellor of finance and human resources at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, where she managed the school’s annual budget and ensured compliance with fiscal policies. Prior to that, she was the county’s budget director. During her tenure, she implemented the county’s first digital budget book, earning the county its inaugural GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.
Harriott’s return comes with plans to revive the interactive, online budget book that was replaced by a paper version after she left for USCB, she said. The digital budget book will include details about the county’s capital projects, offering greater transparency to the public, she added. Her tenure as budget director overlapped with the controversial administration under Greenway, whose leadership unraveled amid allegations of mismanagement and misconduct.
Greenway, voted as the permanent administrator in 2021, was terminated by the Beaufort County Council in late July 2023 amid allegations of mismanagement, including failure to follow procurement statutes, a questionable relationship with a contractor-turned-employee and sexual harassment accusations. The scrutiny surrounding Greenway’s actions, including the mysterious purchase of $36,000 worth of weighted blankets, led to further investigation and the resignation of Deputy Administrator Whitney Richland.
Harriott, who left the county in 2023 to join USCB, said she learned of Greenway’s misdeeds through the news. Now, as the county’s new CFO, her responsibilities include overseeing the county’s budget and procurement finance divisions and ensuring compliance with financial audits. She plans to update the county’s policies and procedures in response to past investigations and aims to apply governmental finance accounting standards to strengthen operations and prevent future issues, she said.
Hired by County Administrator Michael Moore, Harriott said she shares his commitment to increasing transparency. Moore, who officially took office in July, prioritized hiring a CFO and restoring trust in county government. Harriott agrees, saying “The biggest thing for me is gaining back public trust.”
In her interview for the CFO role with Moore, Harriott made her values clear: “I’m a certified government finance officer. There is a code of ethics that I follow,” she told him. She said Moore, in turn, assured her, “This is what I want.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 11:13 AM.
