Audit on Arkansas governor’s $19,000 lectern to be released within next 10 days, lawmaker says
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The co-chairman of a legislative committee that ordered the audit of a $19,000 lectern bought for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday he expects the report on the purchase to be released to the public within the next 10 days.
Republican Rep. Jimmy Gazaway said he and Republican Sen. David Wallace, who co-chairs the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, received the report from auditors on Friday afternoon and are reviewing it. Gazaway said he wasn’t sure yet whether the report would be released to the committee beforehand, or if the panel would hold a hearing on it.
“As the chairs of the committee, we felt like it was important to review it before it’s released,” Gazaway said. “I think we have an obligation to ensure it’s in good form and good order, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Gazaway declined to comment on the report’s findings.
The committee last year approved the request to review the purchase of the lectern, which had drawn nationwide scrutiny over its costs and questions about public records surrounding it.
The 3 1/4-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) blue and wood-paneled lectern was bought in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from an events company in Virginia. The Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office has called the use of the state credit card an accounting error. Sanders’ office said it received the lectern in August.
Sanders, a Republican who served as press secretary for former President Donald Trump, has dismissed questions about the lectern as a “manufactured controversy,” and the item has not been seen at her public events.
The audit had been expected to be completed by the end of March. But the state’s legislative auditor last month said Sanders’ office had been given an extension to submit its response to the audit’s findings.
Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press
News Related-
The best Walmart Cyber Monday deals 2023
-
Jordan Poole took time to showboat and got his shot blocked into the stratosphere
-
The Top Canadian REITs to Buy in November 2023
-
OpenAI’s board might have been dysfunctional–but they made the right choice. Their defeat shows that in the battle between AI profits and ethics, it’s no contest
-
Russia-Ukraine Drone Warfare Rages With Dozens Headed for Moscow, Amid Deadly Winter Storm
-
Trump tells appeals court that threats to judge and clerk in NY civil fraud trial do not justify gag order
-
Can Anyone Take Paxlovid for Covid? Doctors Explain.
-
Google this week will begin deleting inactive accounts. Here's how to save yours.
-
How John Tortorella's Culture Extends from the Philadelphia Flyers to the AHL Phantoms
-
Tri-Cities' hatcheries report best Coho return in years
-
Wild release Dean Evason of head coaching duties
-
Air New Zealand’s Cyber Monday Sale Has the 'Lowest Fares of 2023' to Auckland, Sydney, and More
-
NDP tells Liberals to sweeten the deal if pharmacare legislation is delayed
-
'1,000 contacts with a club': Tiger Woods breaks down his typical tournament prep to college kids in fascinating video