Audit of $19,000 column purchase for Arkansas governor complete – Winnipeg Free Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Arkansas auditors have finished reviewing a $19,000 lecture purchase for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and expect to report back by the end of March, a state official told lawmakers Thursday.

Legislative Auditor Roger Norman said his office interviewed 20 people last fall about the highly-scrutinized lecture that drew national attention. Sanders' office has faced questions about the pharmacy's seemingly high price, as well as its handling of public records about its purchase.

“Field work will continue at least through next week,” Norman told a subcommittee of the Joint Legislative Scrutiny Committee that requested the audit in October. “We have attempted to collect all relevant communications and financial records relating to the purchase and repayment of the podium.”

The 3 1/4-foot-tall (1-meter-high) blue and wood-paneled lectern was purchased in June from a Virginia events company for $19,029.25 with a state credit card. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders' office called the use of the state credit card an accounting error. Sanders' office said it received the lecture in August.

Sanders, a Republican who was a former press secretary for President Donald Trump, dismissed questions about the lecture as an “industrial dispute” and the item has not appeared at his public events. The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the audit Thursday.

Norman said it was unclear when or how the report would be made public. Norman, who made a brief statement at the lecture hall and did not take any questions from MPs, declined to comment after the meeting.

Norman told lawmakers that the co-chairs of the Legislative Joint Oversight Committee could order the release of the report early. It may also be issued at a special meeting by order of the co-chair or at the request of 10 members of the commission. Otherwise, the report will not be released until the committee's next meeting, scheduled for June.

The committee's Republican co-chairs said they have not yet discussed what direction they want to take after receiving the report. Co-chairman Rep. Jimmy Gazaway said they may come back to the auditors with additional questions they want to address first.