The 11-member body is the product of a proviso in this year's state budget that called for the department to put together a group to "provide oversight of the assigned risk plan administrator and the workers' compensation rating organization."

In short, that means the board is tasked with monitoring the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc.

The Boca Raton, Fla.-based NCCI runs South Carolina's assigned risk plan, a sort of insurer of last resort for high-risk professions that can't find insurers willing to write their workers' comp insurance. In addition, NCCI calculates workers' comp rates on behalf of insurers in about 40 states and each year presents rate requests to insurance departments, including South Carolina's.

This year, NCCI created some controversy when it asked South Carolina insurance regulators for an unprecedented 32.9 percent increase, far higher than requests made in most other states.

By its very nature the rate request attracted political attention. An increase of this size would cause workers' comp premiums to increase by at least $130 million and could discourage business expansion in a state already saddled with one of the country's highest unemployment rates.

Gov. Mark Sanford then appointed his own task force to see what, if anything, is broken with the state's workers' comp system.

The legislation for the insurance department's advisory board, however, was introduced before the NCCI furor flared up and seems to suggest some lawmakers may have been thinking about finding alternatives to NCCI.

Eleanor Kitzman, director of the insurance department, picked most of the members of the board, which she will chair.

The Department of Consumer Affairs and the Workers' Compensation Commission will pick their own representatives.

Kitzman's selections included a cross-section of business owners, trade association heads and insurance industry leaders, all with strong backgrounds in workers' comp issues.

One of the appointees, though, does present the potential for a possible conflict of interest. Charles Potok, president of Companion Property and Casualty Insurance Co., is widely considered an expert on workers' comp issues. Potok was the chief actuary at the insurance department in the 1980s and the company he heads is a subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

Potok has been a member of NCCI's board of directors since May 2004. The question, then, is whether Potok can provide oversight of an organization he is so closely tied to.

GIVE TO LEGIT CHARITIES

With all the pleas for financial aid to areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Internal Revenue Service wants charitable donors to "seek out qualified charities."

Too often amid the fog of relief efforts, like the ones under way in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, scam artists and hucksters try to pass themselves off as legitimate good Samaritans.

The IRS is advising anybody thinking about sending money to check its Web site, www.irs.gov. The agency cautions that some organizations, such as churches, may be qualified even though they are not on the list.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration is asking people to make any cash donations to the volunteer agencies it's working with, including the American Red Cross. Go to www.fema.gov and click on the "Volunteer or Make a Donation" link for a complete listing.