Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office has denied allegations that she violated state laws after she purchased a nearly $20,000 lectern with taxpayer money.
An audit requested by lawmakers and released yesterday cited several potential violations of the law, including paying for the desk before delivery and processing records regarding the purchase.
But Sanders dismissed all those questions about the pulpit. His office called the audit’s findings “deeply flawed” and a “waste of taxpayer time and resources.”
“No laws were broken,” they said in a response attached to the report.
Sanders also posted a video on X featuring the podium with the messages “My Name Is Podium” and “Come and Take It” shortly after the audit was released.
The blue, wood-paneled lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based company run by political consultant and lobbyist Virginia Beckett.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office has denied allegations that she violated state laws after she purchased a nearly $20,000 lectern with taxpayer money.
The blue, wood-paneled lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based company run by political consultant and lobbyist Virginia Beckett.
Sanders also posted a video on
According to a breakdown from Beckett Events included in the audit, the total cost included $11,575 for the lectern, $2,500 for the “consulting fee” and $2,200 for the road record.
The cost also included shipping, delivery and credit card processing fees.
The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on September 14, and Sanders’ office called the use of the state credit card an accounting error.
His office said it received the desk in August. The item has not been seen at Sanders’ public events.
Arkansas lawmakers last year approved the request to review the lectern purchase, which had faced national scrutiny, including over its cost.
The lectern of Sanders, who served as press secretary to former President Donald Trump and was widely considered a potential vice presidential candidate, caught the attention of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at the New York Times.
Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones’ office said it had received the audit and would review it, but said it would not comment further.
The auditors said in their report that they were unable to determine whether the cost of the desk was reasonable.
The report said the three foreign suppliers involved in its purchase failed to respond to numerous requests for information from auditors on the desk.
Sanders’ office and auditors have questioned whether the governor and other constitutional officials are subject to the purchasing and property rules she is accused of violating.
The audit says the governor’s office failed to follow steps required by state law for agencies to dispose of state property.
“(The Arkansas Legislative Audit) maintains that the podium and road record remain state property,” the audit states.
The lectern sits in a corner of the governor’s conference room at the State Capitol, September 26, 2023.
The short video also featured a message that read: “My name is Podium.”
But Sanders’ office refuted that the cited purchasing and ownership laws apply only to state agencies, not constitutional officers.
A non-binding legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin, requested by Sanders and released last week, made the same argument.
“I am perplexed that a significant portion of the Legislative Audit’s analysis is based on the erroneous conclusion that the governor’s office is a ‘state agency’ for purposes of certain laws,” Griffin said Monday in a written statement.
The purchase of the lectern came last year just as Sanders was urging lawmakers to broadly limit public access to documents about his administration.
The purchase was initially discovered by Matt Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has a long history of open records requests that revealed questionable spending and other misdeeds by elected officials.
The audit says Sanders’ office potentially illegally falsified public records when the words “to be repaid” were added to the lectern’s original invoice only after the state Republican Party paid it in September.
But Sanders’ office disputed that finding, calling handwritten notes on invoices “common accounting practice.”
The audit further states that the office potentially violated the law when a shipping document linked to the lectern was shredded by a Sanders staffer. Sanders’ office said the document, the “bill of lading,” was inadvertently misplaced and a replacement was provided to auditors when it was discovered.
The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on September 14, and Sanders’ office called the use of the state credit card an accounting error.
The auditors said in their report that they were unable to determine whether the cost of the desk was reasonable.
The audit says Sanders’ office potentially illegally falsified public records when the words “to be repaid” were added to the lectern’s original invoice only after the state Republican Party paid it in September.
House Minority Leader Tippi McCullough, a Little Rock Democrat who serves on the audit committee, said she wants more answers from the governor’s office about the findings.
“We need to get to the bottom of this and make sure people are held accountable and everything is okay moving forward,” McCullough said.
Republican Senate President Bart Hester said he was not concerned by the audit’s findings and said the legislative audit was wrong to apply purchasing and ownership laws to the office of the governor. Hester said “there could have been a cleaner process” for handling cases.
“More importantly, it shows there was no bomb,” Hester said.
The audit was released days after lawmakers began a legislative session focused on the state budget.
The audit is the first of two that Hickey asked lawmakers to approve last year.
The committee also approved another audit looking at travel and security records that Sanders retroactively shielded from public disclosure under changes to the state’s public records law.
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