Legislative Joint Auditing
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Members if you'd begin making your way to the to your seats we're going to get started here just in a second.
right, welcome everyone. we're gonna call
to order the legislative joint audit committeetee for Friday, February 13th chair seearorum the first item on the agenda is the adoption of the January9th,2026 minutes have a motion and a second all those in favor let it be known by a. any opposed same sign motion carries the next item on our agenda is the adoption of reports of the executive and standing committees first up is
the executive committee andpresentative Luundstrom would you like to share that the
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
4:26
executive committee met Thursday, February 12,2026 and adopted the minutes for the meeting held January8,2026. Staff reported to the committee the audit and special report scheduled to be presented to the standing committees and the full legislative joint audit committee this month. Staff also noted one committee requested a report that is outstanding and currently in progress in new business the committee denied a request for a special report
regarding the IO fire department, the committee approved a request to send questions to the Arkansas Department of Health regarding sexual risk avoidance education funds obtained through Title ive grants. The committee granted permission to the Arkansas Department of Administrative Services officefice of Property Risk to retain the services of a licensed certified public accountant to conduct the OPR annual financial audit. Staff was instructed to gather information regarding the current caseload of assignments to circuit judges in Benton
County, inth western west judicial district circuit court with a focus on how the cases are assigned and the total number of cases assigned to each judge. Staff will report to the committee on the information obtained in the next meeting with no additional business to discuss the meeting adjourned. next meeting will be Thursday the 12th2026 or at the call of the chair. move to adopt this report Members you've heard the the report and
Speaker 25
5:46
the we have a motion do we have a second
any discussion if not all those in favor of
adopting the report say aye any opposed report is adopted. Next up is the standing Committee on counties and municipalities and I believe Senator Johnson is going to present that report got me on well you're not showing up here yet have you pressed the button Oh yes
Chair
Unverified
6:33
There you go Senator Johnson you're recognized
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
6:36
thank you Mr Chairman the standing committee on counties and municipalities met on February 12,2026.ittee adopted the minutes of the meeting held January8,2026. The committee was updated on the status of the December31st,2022, delinquent private water and sewer audits.19 entities turnback funds were reinstated after all required reports were submitted. The committee was also updated on the status
of the December31,2023 delinquent private water and sewer audits of the64 delinquent entities,59 have filed their reports since the legislative joint auditing committee meeting held on July10,2025. the committee was notified that after staff's follow up visit to the city of adona, the city is now in substantial compliance with municipal accounting law Officials from the towns of Denning and Gum Springs were present to address substantial
noncompliance with municipal accounting law. The committee approved a motion to give town officials60 days to reach compliance as required under Arkansas code 1459117. the committee reviewed 10 deferred reports and 109 current reports.ficials from eight entities were present to address repeat findings5 previously deferred reports were filed and5 were deferred of the 109 current reports reviewed 15 were referred to prosecuting
attorneys and the attorney general and two were certified to the governmental bonding bonding board the committee filed 94 current reports and deferred 15 reports to allow officials to answer questions and to provide additional information at a future meeting as requested by the committee. Mister Chairman, I move for the adoption of this report thank you senator Johnson members you've heard the report.
do we have a second? have a second. Any discussion?
seeing none all those in favor of adopting the report say aye any opposed same sign motion carries a got report is adopted Next up is the standingittee on state agencies and I believe Senator Mcee is going to recognize that I'm sorry I skipped one thank you Mr White. the standingittee on Education Institutions andpresentative Duke is going to present that Thank you Mr Chair. The
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
9:08
committee met Thursday, February 12,2026 and adopted the minutes from the January8,2026 meeting. ir1ation audit reports were included on the committee's agenda for review. Officials from the northwest Arkansas Community College and West Memphis School District were present to answer questions from the committee related to repeat findings in the respective audit reports. The audit report for the Cedarville school district contained a finding that was certified to the governmental bonding boardard and referred to the prosecuting attorney and attorney general. The committee
filed a31 reports that were brought before it. Mr Chair, I move to adopt this
report. you Representative Duke. We have a motion do we have a second? Have a second any discussion seeing
none all those in favor say aye any opposed motion is adopted Next up now is the standing Committee on state agencies and Senator Mcee is going to present that report. Thank you Mr Chairman.10 reports
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
10:11
were on the committee's agenda yesterday two deferred reports and two current reports with the following findings were presented. The Department of Human Services reported instances of improper benefit payments to employees from disaster supplemental nutrition assistance programme and the medicaid program DHS also had a610,000 dollars warrant that was cashed by someone other than the intended payee and had several issues regarding capital assets the department of Parks Heritage and tourism reported a loss of receipts at its at one of its
museums and had errors in several of its change funds. The Department of Corrections reported unauthorized fuel card purchases by an employee and did not properly test its disaster recovery plan. The Department of Veterans affairs reported to legislative audit that employees at the Fafayetteville Veterans Home were paid for time that was not actually worked the agency also made a duplicate payment to a vendor and did not properly approve overtime. In addition, the special report related to law enforcement agencies' adoption of racial profiling policies was presented
Various agency staff members were present to report on how the aggencies intended to address the audit findings and to answer committee questions during the meeting the committee filed the 10 reports and with that Mr. Chairman, I would
move to adopt this report. thank you Senator Mcee we have a a motion do we have a second and he discussion if not all those in favor of adopting the report say aye any opposed motion is adopted Next up on the agenda is the medicaid subcommittee which is
not met since 2018 andpresentative McAlinon is going to present that report p re s ent ative MacAlinon you're recognized
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
11:54
thank you chairman. The medicaid subcommittee met Thursday, February 12,2026 and adopted the minutes from its last meeting held November 1st,2018. Legislative audit staff gave her presentation covering the history of Medicaid subcommittee and legislative audit's role related to medicaid.taff from the department of humanmanervices the office of Medicaid Inspector General, the attorney general's office gave
presentations regarding their respective roles with medicaid and general information regarding Medicaid after the presentation staff members from the four agencies answered questions from the committee with no additional business to discuss the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting of the committee will be held at the call of the chairs. I move for
adoption of this report. thank you Representative McAendon. do we have a second? Any
discussion? I understand that Senator Flippo is prepared to answer any detailed questions if we have
any all right seeing none then all those in favor of adopting the report say
aye any opposed motion is adopted. all right moving right along on the agenda. the next item is a review of some special reports the next item is the regulatoryba financial statements and other reports for Claiborne County for the year ended December31st,2024. And I believe Allison Poston is going to present here so Miss Allison you are recognized
Speaker 39
13:20
thank you Mr Chair. This presentation covers the financial audit of Cleburne County for the year ended December31st,2024. Cleburne County in north central Arkansas maintains its county seat in Heberw Springs and has a population of approximately7,300 people. The county is governed by an 11member quorum court and day to day operations are managed by7 elected officials and 2 full-time employee For the general road and all other funds combined assets totaled $23 million while
liabilities totaled $1 million at December31st,2024. Additionally, revenues were $17.9 million in expenditures totaled $13.5 million The county judge appoints the five members of the library board which then appoints the county librarian the librarian's job duties include overseeing daily operations of the three library branches within the county such as hiring and managing library employees, meeting with the library board to discuss budgetary items and ensuring fiscal responsibility
the librarian reports directly to the board but works under the authority of the county judge who has final authority to take official action on issues affecting the library such as approving a budget and hiring and terminating personnel. our review of the Cleburn County library expenses from January2022 through August 2025 revealed unauthorized and questionable disbursements totalling over $80,000 due to a general lack of oversight within the library by the library board and by the county.
Purchas totaling just over73,000 dollars were made without a documented business purpose for items such as power tools and batteries, night vision goggles, first aid supplies, homeme decor, camping supplies, clothing and grocery items that all appear to be for personal use. It should be noted that of these purchases items totalling7,600 dollars were paid by county claim and the remaining65,000 dollars was paid from accounts held by the county librarian with over s ight from the board but outside of county control.
we also selected nonconsumable purchases totaling33,000 dollars to scite and we could only account for purchases totaling $2600. In addition, undocumented disbursements totaling5,300 dollars were made from the library account for items purchased from various vendors. Although some of these purchases were from vendors typically used a business purpose could not be substantiated therefore the validity of these purchases could not be determined. Furthermore, based on an analysis of fuel costs paid by
the library compared to mileage recorded in library vehicle service records and the average fuel cost for the review period and estimated $2,157 in fuel expenses paid by county claim appeared to be improper as well. library director Zachary cowran who is responsible for the purchases mentioned was placed on administrative leave in june of last year subsequent to an investigation by the Arkansas State Police in the sixth judicial district prosecuting attorney Cawthorne was charged with felony theft of property
and abuse of office on September 11th and resigned from his position the following day This matter was referred to the sixth judicial district prosecuting attorney and the attorney general. Mr Chair, this concludes my presentation. County officials are here to answer committee questions thank you. yousolston
committee you've heard the report and and we do have representatives here from Claiborne County available to answer any questions are there any questions for staff or the any witnesses that are here
OK seeing none do I have a motion to file the report. have a motion and a second. any discussion on the motion if not all those in favor say aye any opposed motion passes all rightex up is the special report for the review of scholarships awarded expenditures and grants received by the University of Arkansas littlettleRock, Charles W.
Donaldson Scholars Academy for the 10 year period and members just as a reminder this was a special report request and maybe for those that were not here last month or those that are online that that don't have the benefit of the history from from our last meeting we we had a an extensive conversation a lot of questions around this and and I think probably generally speaking the consensus is things might
have been ran differently now and and but the folks that were involved in this are no longer at these organizations there have been improvements and changes made through the years and so with that there are a number of people at your request that have been here today that are here today that are here to answer any further questions that we might have so OK.
at this point, Charlie Camp is going to be recognized to present the the report thank you Mr chairir this
Speaker 48
18:48
report was issued in response to a legislative request for legislative audit to conduct
Speaker 51
18:53
a review of scholarships awarded expenditures made and grants received by the Charles W. Donaldson Scholars Academy at the University of Arkansas LittleRock this report was initially presented at the meeting of this committee held last month and deferred to allow for further discussions
the goals of this program included providing preparation and application assistance for the ACT increasing student confidence regarding college attendance and graduation building community and relationships and providing financial support to a $2500 scholarship renewable annually up to four years. The program functioned as a collaborative effort among UaLrhilander Smith and the Pulaski Technical College with the Pulaski Countypecial School District providing $10 million
in funding over the life of the program the majority of funds were spent for salaries wages and fringe benefits scholarships and administrative and other exp During the review period the program awarded scholarships totaling 1.87 million to379 students six of whom graduated fromhilander Smith UALr or UAPtC. we tested39 students who received scholarships and noted56 instances in which32 of
these students were ineligible scholarships awarded to ineligible students athilandersmith and UALR totaled over $111,000 or32% of the roughly350,000 dollars tested scholarships award awards tested at UApTC revealed no exceptions. Additionally we tested 147 disbursements towing 1.91 million and noted 124 exceptions regarding processing and documenting of disbursements
a50,000 dollars grant from the central Arkansas planning and Development district was expended in accordance with the grant and it appears the court monitored the expenditure of the remaining $10 million gra expenditures included one international trip and several trips within the United States as well
Speaker 56
21:02
as many cultural and social activities for the programs gra m activity was limited beginning in 220 due to COVId-19
Speaker 51
21:18
pandemic and in June 2024 the program ceased to operate over remaining funds totaling 1.6 million 80% was returned to Pulaskipecial School District and 20% was returned to the Jacksonville North Pulas Due to the ss cessation of the program all employees materially involved in the program including the director we're no longer employed by UALr and were unavailable for interview at the time of the review. therefore we relied solely on the documentation provided by
UALR and limited knowledge of current employees to obtain the information provided in the report this slide presents program expenditures by higher education institution for the life of the program which were provided byuaLr expenditures for UALR
Speaker 56
22:08
totaled just over 8 million while expenditures forhilander Smith and UAptC total of $262,061,000 respectively in response to requests from
Speaker 51
22:21
this committee at its meeting held last month AA emailed to committee members the court order issued by the US District court for the Eastern District of Arkansas as well as an example of a progress report submitted by the program to the court Mr chair this concludes my presentationpresentatives from UALrhilander Smith and UAPTC are present to respond to committee questions. all right thank you Mr Camp and again as
a as a matter of emphasis for maybe those that
are don't have the history here this was really kind of an out a result of the long standing desegregation and and and other issues in this school district was created in essence through a federal court and administered and monitored through the federal court with the assistance of these institutions so we do have a a number of members representative here and because we have so many I think we're going to limit it to one
organization at a time if possible to not crowd that table so I see a couple here so Senator Johnson is this for a particular group or organization or is this your staff Mr Chairman I I really, I I would
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
23:38
like to hear from all of the schools involved but it it not one in particular I just wanted to see it seems that the fact that you may have multiple and and maybe this is a question you know for Mr. Camp
but if you have multiple ins institutions involved in overseeing a program then you really have nobody overseeing a program Mr Camp is that perhaps a fair situation because I mean you you've spread the administration of this out over over three or four higher education institutions in other words who's guarding the hen house the administration of the
Speaker 61
24:20
program was handled at Ualr through the Donaldsongrame academy
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
24:27
OK so this is a I mean I'm not picking onuaLr but but if if there is responsibility then I guess it goes back touaLr is that fair
Speaker 51
24:36
to say they were custodian of the funds and the director and other employees of the program or employees ofu I'm I'm
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
24:43
particularly troubled by and you know and we've seen this I mean we just had a librarian who's you know probably gonna go to jail for what he did but then you've got something where you create a program and people the salaries
administrative costs far exceed the scholarships and I was I'm for more and more scholarships especially for people that are in in need based but you know when people can figure out a way to create an institution and a bureaucracy and get paid for it and then less of that money actually goes to those beneficiaries and then I think you're there there's a lot bigger problem here to me it's as criminal as as a librarian buying toys for himself and putting gas in his car with it but I'll if if
it witness es come up I'll just ask them to to speak to that and I guessuar is is the one that I would would address
that too thank you senator Johnson. just a couple of comments to to your statement and and I think we we can all agree that there would have been different results but this was created very very very very very broadly by a federal court and monitored the reports that you
that you received subsequent to our last meeting very detailed I think 20 or 25 pages of of reporting to the court and so whether or not the federal judge was was monitoring you as closely as maybe we would or not is is is obviously open for debate but these organizations were asked to they didn't you know come
with an idea they were asked to administer this program and so I think that we can all agree that that it should have been done or could have been done a little differently and and at first I had the same response as you and and the more information I read about and the more information that I received and the more broadly I saw the program was it wasn't just scholarships it was creating relationships and creating cultural experiences for for those perspective college
students that might not otherwise have had that opportunity and so it was very broad and even even staff and I don't want to speak for for staff or Mr. Kemp but even in the review other than the the missing maybe support of invoices on a on a certain number of invoices there was not anything found to be outside the the scope the very broad scope of that would you would you care to comment on that Mr we really couldn't speak to
Speaker 51
27:34
whether the expenditures were improper or not because the scope was so broad so I believe what you what you said Mr chair would be accurate Representative beatty, you are
recognized there's a question for staff or for the chair.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
27:51
do we have anyone from the school district that's here that might wish to speak on the record on on this audit I I would like to hear from their point of
p re s ent ative beatty no sir we do not have anyone from the school districts who are here available to speak on their behalf I
mean I I just think it if the if the program came from and was funded out of out of their proceeds and it was something that was to benefit and and correct some of the wrongs that were there on the district side just how involved were they to to judge and see how this program operated and and I would like to hear their perspective on it so I I wish they were here but with with that'll I'll get out of the queue. thank you.
right anybody else I don't see anybody else in the queue. I'm not encouraging anybody either way so all right with that in
the queue clear do I have a motion to file this report a motion to have a second have a motion in a second any discussion on that motion if not all those in favor say aye any opposed? motion passes the report is filed
all right members that concludes the review of the reports and under other business the next meeting of the legislative joint audit committeetee will be held on March 12th and 13th,2026. with that we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order by Chair
B. Adoption of Minutes
C. Reports of Executive and Standing Committees:
D. Review of Reports:
E. Other Business:
F. New Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — LEGISLATIVE JOINT AUDITING, Feb 13, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jim Petty Chair
Unverified
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
Speaker 25
Chair
Unverified
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
Speaker 39
Speaker 48
Speaker 51
Speaker 56
Speaker 61
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified