South Carolina Code 2-2-50. Acquisition of evidence or information
(A) serving a request for information on the agency being studied or investigated. The request for information must be answered separately and fully in writing under oath and returned to the investigating committee within forty-five days after being served upon the department or agency. The time for answering a request for information may be extended for a period to be agreed upon by the investigating committee and the agency for good cause shown. The head of the department or agency must sign the answers verifying them as true and correct. If any question contains a request for records, policies, audio or video recordings, or other documents, the question is not considered to have been answered unless a complete set of records, policies, audio or video recordings, or other documents is included with the answer;
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 2-2-50
- Agency: includes a body corporate and politic established as an instrumentality of the State. See South Carolina Code 2-2-10
- Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
- Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Investigating committee: means any standing committee or subcommittee of a standing committee exercising its authority to conduct an oversight study and investigation of an agency within the standing committee's subject matter jurisdiction. See South Carolina Code 2-2-10
- Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
- Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
- Program evaluation report: means a report compiled by an agency at the request of an investigating committee that may include, but is not limited to, a review of agency management and organization, program delivery, agency goals and objectives, compliance with its statutory mandate, and fiscal accountability. See South Carolina Code 2-2-10
- Request for information: means a list of questions that an investigating committee serves on a department or agency under investigation. See South Carolina Code 2-2-10
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
- Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
(B) deposing witnesses upon oral examination. A deposition upon oral examination may be taken from any person that the investigating committee has reason to believe has knowledge of the activities under investigation. The investigating committee shall provide the person being deposed and the agency under investigation with no less than ten days notice of the deposition. The notice to the agency shall state the time and place for taking the deposition and name and address of each person to be examined. If a subpoena duces tecum is to be served on the person to be examined, the designation of the materials to be produced as set forth in the subpoena must be attached to or included in the notice. The deposition must be taken under oath administered by the chairman of the investigating committee or his designee. The testimony must be taken stenographically or recorded by some other means and may be videotaped. A person may be compelled to attend a deposition in the county in which he resides or in Richland County;
(C) issuing subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum pursuant to Chapter 69 of Title 2; and
(D) requiring the agency to prepare and submit to the investigating committee a program evaluation report by a date specified by the investigating committee. The investigating committee must specify the agency program or programs or agency operations that it is studying or investigating and the information to be contained in the program evaluation report.