ALC-State Insurance Programs Oversight Subcommittee
Video
Transcript
2 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
- Processing date
- October 5, 2026
Speaker 2
2:14
you.
members if you'd find your seat we're going to get
started here in about 30 seconds
all right members let's get started we're calling to order the state insurance programs oversight subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council we've got one item on the agenda Mr. Wallace, if you would approach and introduce yourself as a formality, and then you may proceed.
Speaker 22
3:43
Good morning. Grant Wallace, Director of the Employee Benefits Division and Office of Property Risk. What you have before you is an item to review a request from the Office of Property Risk to utilize the request for qualifications procurement process to procure the auditing services for the state captive insurance program. So kind of backing up a little bit, the governing statute that created the captive does require us to get an independent audit.
We feel that the RFQ process is the best way to go about this due to the uniqueness of the captive program the uniqueness of a government managing a captive program and we do acknowledge and understand that the accounting principles that would govern this which are a FASB and forgive me for not knowing the full acronym there is not the expertise of legislative audit so with that I'd be glad to answer any additional questions. Thank you
Mr. Wallace and I had a couple before we
we open it up. Looks like we've got a few already in there. That's Financial Accounting Standards Board audit. Thank you. And I wouldn't expect you or anyone to understand that or know that. There's plenty of acronyms. But, and I agree, qualifications are important. The question I guess that I had that was most pressing is, and you may not know the answer to this, is do we always have to put a projected cost in there because it seems to me that that just kind of
advertises what we are willing to pay and quite frankly as and I've done some research and talked to some that that's pretty significant on a yearly basis I would I would if anybody's listening I would expect it to be much less than that but do we do you know if we have to put the anticipated cost with our it is part of the review all the different
Speaker 22
5:47
steps that we have to go through for the approval checkoff yes you have to put an amount in there all
right and then i would also add as far and i'm good with the rfq approach but i would also add that uh audits professional
auditing standards require yes the auditor to have the qualifications in order to accept the engagement so even if we didn't do it as an rfq they would have to have the qualifications so with that there are a couple uh here in queue so representative ladyman you are recognized thank you mr chairman i'm over here yes sir uh well thank
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
6:22
you for being here and going over this uh but i had a question about where you talk about uh we have an idea what the cost should be
based on our market research so i have a question about your market research you know how do you do that what's the parameters of that do you look at is that a nationwide or is that just in the state of arkansas just was it
Speaker 22
6:55
nationwide okay yes sir so we looked at auditing firms that had experience working with insurance companies and with the fasby standards that was a nationwide search
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
7:05
wasn't nationwide okay uh i asked this question yesterday another committee but do you give any advantage to companies that are located in
Speaker 22
7:22
arkansas or or is that possible when you're looking at qualifications yes i think you could write it in such a way that yes there would be a preference or an advantage to a company that was locally operating um you could have meeting requirements or you could have physical presence requirements
for any potential awardee that would that could end up uh benefiting or giving uh additional kind of bonuses points uh for lack of a better phrase uh to that awardee yeah well you know i wouldn't nobody would
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
7:59
want to affect the quality of the company. But, you know, if everything else being equal or close to equal, I think we should give advantage to our companies. Thank you for that answer.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, Representative Leidyman. And just again, as recovering CPA myself, I think the key is going to be compliance with their standards, not even on RFQ, but the standards, the professional standards that they have to, and it is this captive insurance is a niche. It's not like doing individual income tax returns, and so I am very confident there are those in Arkansas that can probably do this, but I just wanted to add that clarification.
All right, Senator Hickey, you are recognized. So
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
8:50
I want to make sure I fully understand this with something that was said. So this is a four-year contract, right? All of 26, 27, 28, and 29. Right. We would start with the initial four-year term. Right. Now, this is the total
cost for the four-year term, not an annual amount? Total projected cost would be for the full term. For the full term. So we're talking about $200,000 a
year. Okay. And that's fair enough. And in addition to that, though, once you do receive this and you get who you're going to use,
in the end, this committee and ALC
will still have to approve that, correct? Correct. What we're doing today is
Speaker 22
9:28
just giving us permission to utilize this process. Once we have a winner selected, it will go to the State Board of Finance, and then it will come to hear this committee and the full ALC before we are fully executed and engaging with them.
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
9:42
Right. And as the chairman said, I always hate to put these costs out there, but I think at the very least that they should be notified that, yes, this may be an RFQ.
it still has to be approved by this subcommittee full ALC the state board of finance and just because it's that and we put this number out doesn't mean that we're going to throw cost out the window if it's not something we see in line so I don't think it would hurt to tell them that unless there's something that keeps you from doing it
Speaker 22
10:13
right and hopefully you know all things being equal then we it's not like we're ignoring costs in this process you know we're really striving to get those qualifications and those standards and then make sure we're vetting that
and then if we get all things equal absolutely we would make sure we're getting the best
deal for the state. Thank you sir. Thank you Senator Hickey. I think my perspective on the number is it's the old it's bigger than a bread box. I know for a fact that we've got a very active state agency that does a lot of things in the area of finance and in other areas and they're uh, their annual audit fee is, is probably half or less than, than that annual number.
So hopefully we can get there. Uh, let's see. Okay. I had one in the queue. Representative Beatty, you got yours answered or. Oh, okay. Well, seeing no one else, that's a, that's good timing. I, uh, I hear a motion. Do I hear a second? All those in favor, let it be known by aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Seeing no other business before us, we are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Review of the Office of Property Risk Request for Qualifications for Financial Auditing Services
C. Other Business
D. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - STATE INSURANCE PROGRAMS OVERSIGHT SUBCOMMITTEE, Jan 14, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| EXHIBIT B - RFQRequest.OfficeofPropertyRisk.12.9.25.JP.signed | Exhibit | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 8
Speaker 9
Speaker 1
Speaker 14
Senator Jim Petty Chair
Unverified
Speaker 22
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified