ARKANSAS, USA — A drafted audit into the controversial purchase of a $19,000 lectern by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' office has been completed, according to Legislative Auditor Roger Norman.
While the drafted report is complete, it has not been released to the public, as a response from the Governor's office hasn't been submitted yet.
According to Norman, Gov. Sanders' office requested an extension to write a response, which originally had a deadline of March 29— pushing the anticipated release date to early April.
The Arkansas Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, an all-Republican legislative panel, approved the audit requested by Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey Jr. (R-Texarkana) in October 2023.
The audit covers:
- An inspection of all expenditures related to the lectern’s purchase
- An inspection of all matters involving the Governor and her office in relation to the 2023 special session that was called around the time of the FOIA requests
- A request to create a policy and procedure to conduct the audit and any similar requests in the future
On Sept. 14, the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for $19,000 spent on a 39-inch-tall, wood-paneled, blue lectern.
Similar lecterns can be found online for $7,500 or less, but Sanders stated the one purchased by the state had additional features such as custom height and sound components, and the cost included a road case, shipping, handling, and a 3% credit card fee.
Gov. Sanders called the use of a state credit card an accounting error.
A few days after information about the lectern purchase emerged, Gov. Sanders called a special legislative session to—among other subjects—scale back public access to financial records about her administration.
After that goal faced backlash from media groups and politicians on both sides of the aisle, the bill was amended to only cover travel and security records.
When asked why she hadn't used the lectern in public yet, she replied that if she had, the media would "talk about nothing else ... the media wants to spend all of their time focused on things that frankly don't [impact Arkansas]."
Gov. Sanders' Spokesperson Alexa Henning stated that the Governor "welcomes the audit" and that "these desperate radical left keyboard warriors want to manufacture a controversy where one does not exist."
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