State Treasurer Janet Cowell is failing to follow the law by not disclosing hundreds of millions of dollars in direct and indirect fees paid by the state retirement system, the State Employees Association of North Carolina has discovered as part of its ongoing investigation.

In honor of Sunshine Week in North Carolina, SEANC calls on Treasurer Cowell to come clean with the public about these hidden fees in order to shine a light on what is happening with taxpayers’ money.

“It is time for Treasurer Cowell to show transparency and accountability by immediately disclosing all of the retirement fees as the current law requires her to do,” said SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope. “It shouldn’t take an investigation to make her do the right thing. As an elected official, she should be ready and willing to be honest with North Carolinians.”

SEANC believes Treasurer Cowell is in direct violation of NCGS 147-69.2(b)(10a), which requires the Treasurer to disclose (in her quarterly reports required by NCGS 147-68(d1) to the N.C. General Assembly Joint Government Operations Committee, the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations and Finance committees and the Fiscal Research Division) a specific listing of all direct and indirect placement fees, asset fees, performance fees and any other money management fees incurred by the state.

Reports from Treasurer Cowell to the General Assembly have failed to disclose a large number of these fees in the $86 billion retirement fund. SEANC discovered these hidden fees as part of an ongoing forensic investigation of the retirement system’s investments by national expert Ted Siedle.