Audit of governor’s lectern includes ‘several possible violations’

LITTLE ROCK — Legislative auditors released a report late Monday afternoon, looking into the purchase of a custom lectern by the Arkansas Governor’s Office in 2023, and referred the matter to the 6th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s office and the Attorney General’s office.

The 68-page report was posted on the Legislative Audit website just after 4 p.m. Monday. Legislative officials have been investigating the purchase of an over $19,000 lectern for the office for some time.

In the report, officials said they interviewed current and former staff of the Governor’s Office, the Department of Finance and Administration, the Secretary of State’s Office, Department of Transformation and Shared Services and the state GOP as well as reviewed financial information and payments to vendors in connection with their investigation.

In the report, officials allege several possible violations of state law including prepayment for the lectern prior to delivery, investigators receiving three versions of an invoice on the lectern with a staff member altering the public record into a state database, as well as the shredding of a bill of lading.

“The Governor’s office potentially violated Ark. Code Ann.

19-4-1107 (2) (A), 19-4-1108 (a) requiring the retention of original documents with the business office of the agency when a Governor’s office staff member shredded the bill of lading,” the report noted.

“During interviews with Governor’s office staff, it was stated that the shredding of the bill of lading was inadvertent. Both Code sections mandate retention of original evidences of indebtedness by the business office of the state agency.”

In a statement late Monday, Alexa Henning, spokesperson for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told Little Rock television station KARK that the Governor’s office followed state law.

“The facts outlined in the report demonstrate what the governor’s office said all along: we followed the law, and the state was fully reimbursed with private funds for the lectern, at no cost to the taxpayers,” Henning told KARK.

In a response in the audit report, Gov. Sanders said, “No laws were broken by the Governor’s office. Even this deeply flawed report by Arkansas Legislative Audit acknowledges the lectern and travel case are real and exist, the lectern was custom built based on specific height requirements, the lectern and travel case were not found to be part of some ‘payment scheme,’ the lectern and travel case was not found to be unreasonable.”

The governor also said the governor’s office paid for the items in June 2023 and made the decision to reimburse the state, with private funds in Sept. 2023, transferring ownership to the state GOP; and that the governor’s office has taken actions to improve its internal procedures.

“The GO (Governor’s office) welcomed this audit, encouraged the General Assembly to complete it quickly, and was cooperative and accommodating the ALA’s requests. It was a waste of taxpayer resources and time that resulted in exactly what the GO said: the office lawfully purchased a lectern and travel case,” Gov.

Sanders said in the response.

“It was later determined that RPA should lawfully purchase it. No laws were broken. No fraud was committed.”

The Legislative Audit committee will be discussing the issue at the state Capitol in Little Rock.