Legislative Auditor Roger Norman said Wednesday that investigators are nearly done with their investigation into the purchase of a $19,000 lectern by the governor's office.
The lectern, which the governor's office bought with a state credit card, has prompted a five-month-long review by legislative auditors.
In an email Wednesday, Norman said legislative auditors have completed a draft report, which has been sent to the governor's office for a response.
The governor's office has until Friday to submit its response to legislative auditors, who will then finish the report in "early April," Norman said. Norman told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that typically the agency at the center of the audit gets a chance to respond to it before it is made public. KARK first reported news of the draft's being completed.
State Sen. David Wallace, co-chair of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, told the Democrat-Gazette he expects the report to made public, "I would think no later than the second week of April and I hope sooner than that."
Wallace and fellow Legislative Joint Auditing Committee co-chair State Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, will decide how to release the report to the public. The co-chairs have the option to release the final report to the public early, call a special meeting to have the auditors present their findings or wait until the committee's next meeting in June.
Gazaway did not return a request for comment on Wednesday, but told the Democrat-Gazette last month he would want to read the audit report first, before making a decision on when to make it public.
Norman told lawmakers last month that he anticipated the audit would be finished by the end of March, saying the review had taken longer than he originally anticipated due to delays caused by holidays and inclement weather. Wallace said he has yet to read the draft report, saying he will wait for the governor's office to submit its response.
"The draft report is complete. However, management response to the draft report has not been received," Norman wrote. "Management response from the Governor's Office is due Friday, March 29, 2024. Due to granting an extension requested by the Governor's Office to provide this management response to the draft report, the anticipated completion date is now early April."
In June, the governor's office purchased a 39-inch custom Falcon Podium and travel case from Beckett Events LLC, an events management firm based in Arlington, Va. While the governor's office used a state credit card to buy the lectern, Sanders has since said that since the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the purchase, it came at no cost to taxpayers.
A spokeswoman for Sanders' office did not respond to a request to comment, but her office has previously denied any wrongdoing.
But State Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said since the governor's office used a state credit card to make the initial purchase, an investigation was needed, and requested legislative auditors look into it.
State records show the state purchased the lectern on June 12 and was reimbursed for the purchase by the Republican Party of Arkansas on Sept. 14.
The purchase of the lectern and traveling case cost $18,475, and the governor's office was also charged an additional 3% credit processing fee of $554.25.
The lectern purchase was originally reported on by attorney and blogger Matt Campbell, who posted the invoice for the lectern on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Rogers-based attorney Tom Mars has said he represents a client who has "firsthand knowledge" that the governor's office interfered with Campbell's Freedom of Information Act request regarding the purchase and altered public documents. Mars told the Democrat-Gazette that legislative auditors interviewed his client for the report.