Legislative Joint Auditing-Educational Institutions

are not going to be with us and the vice chair has delegated it to Somebody up here on the front, so we're gonna proceed with this with this committee meeting and move as quickly a pace as we possibly can. For those of you thinking that Solution Tree will be here today, it will not, it will be tomorrow. So if that's why you came, wrong move, wrong move, so. That's not the thing we're going to deal with, um, Mr. Fink, you recognized. We have to adopt the minutes without objection, we will, the minutes will stand approved. Are there objections? The minute stand approved and now we're going to see review of reports you recognize. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon. Today we have 6 education audit reports to review and we will begin with the Lone Oak School District audit report, which was deferred from the previous meeting. Um, Lone Oak had 3 findings. The first one district administration discovered and ALA verified on a test basis, missing funds related to a school fundraiser. Our review revealed that cheerleading fundraiser proceeds of $2500 were deposited into the district bank account, however, district officials verified through contacting donors that $425 in proceeds intended for the fundraiser were sent to a payment app utilized by the cheer sponsor rather than to. deposited into the district's bank account. The cheer sponsor was terminated from employment on October of 2023 and charged with theft of property in November of 2023. Finding too In August 2022, the district received a FFA grant totaling $2300. The sponsor provided invoices to support only $300 in purchases with grant funds, leaving $1,996 unaccounted for. In addition, the sponsor purchased $5700 in products for a fundraiser, however, fundraiser proceeds were not turned over to the district treasurer. District officials were unable to locate any of the fundraiser items or identify the amount. A fundraiser proceeds. The sponsor resigned from employment on September 14, 2023, and the Lone Oak Police Department, uh was currently investigating the matter. Finding 32 unauthorized withdrawals totaling $4900 were made from the district's bank account on January 6th of 2023. Bank personnel discovered the unauthorized withdrawals and the funds were recovered from the bank, and that concludes the findings for Loan Oak School District district officials are here to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you so much. With the district officials, please come to the end of the table and identify yourself for the record, even though I may know your name. Good afternoon. I'm Jeffy, Superintendent. All right, Jeff And I'm Tanya Weaver, a director of finance. Right, Mr. Director of Finance, uh, the committee. Decided to take a look at this uh from the last time. Not because you had necessarily done anything wrong, but because we were wondering what are you going to do going forward to preclude this from happening, uh, in the future. Yes ma'am, um, we are currently Deferring all of our fundraisers through our district treasurer. So if a fundraiser starts, let's say at the high school, it goes to their secretary, uh, and is reconciled out through the receipts versus the deposits then is it sent to our central office where our district treasurer each month now goes through and uh make sure that, make sure that all of our deposits reconcile with the deposit slips that we have, so we are reconciling each month where we were not doing that for our fundraisers. Sounds good. Well, what has happened to the two individuals who decided to abscond with the money. One is um we. We turned them in for ethics violation. Uh, we did have ethics hearings with with both of them. Uh, one, license was terminated for one year and fined $500. The other's license was terminated permanently and I'm going to court charges were filed, uh. That's felony charges and charges were filed and I'm going to court with that case next month. All right. Other questions from the committee? Mr. Accountancy Now this All right, I appreciate you all so very, very much. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come, uh, Madam Financial officer, would you like to have anything to say? I You're good? Thank you so very very much and we appreciate you and good luck going forward. Thank you for coming. We are now where Mr. Fink. Arkansas. You recognized. Thank you. The next report is Arkansas Tech University, which was certified to the governmental bonding Board. It had two findings. Finding one on October 4th, 2023, the university discovered that a check for $120,000 which had been mailed to a vendor was fraudulently intercepted and payee information was altered prior to clearing the bank on October 3, 2023. The funds were recovered from the bank on October 4th, 2023. Finding too On October 24th, 2023, university personnel discovered that two welders with the total cost of a little under $6500 were missing from the Ozark campus welding shop upon investigation, it was determined that the welding program chair, instructor had sold these welders to students. Subsequently, the instructor was charged with theft of property and sentenced to 60 days' probation. The equipment was returned to the university, and that concludes the findings for Arkansas Tech. You were very kind. Uh The last people and thanking them for coming, uh, their busy schedule, etc. and I feel the same way. Also. Yes. Well, we don't, we invite those who have repeat findings. And the reason they're not here is because this is not a repeat finding. And so we did not invite them to the committee. I apologies, I, I still like for people to show up. I know you do, and I think that's so kind of you, but we just don't drag them down here for the first time, you know, they have to be a repeater. Well, Judge Judy says that if we, that if we we put more people in jail the first time. She is not. Live and kicking and uh that if we put more people in jail on the first offense, first time they're caught, she says. Uh, that we would, we would have less crime in the future. I'm sure she, she means that too, but we have, this has been referred to the prosecuting attorney, uh, the university is not at fault here, uh, we're, we're at the fault of the university, then certainly, um, we would be having them here, but if you would like for them to come, the committee can always do that, but it is a first finding and they have taken the correct actions uh to make sure that this does not happen again. plates in Chesterfield and said what I wanted to say, I'll make. Made the motion to uh to have it considered hard. You've heard the motion. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded discussion on the motion. Seeing that place the question. All those in favor, please say aye, opposed no. Motion carries, Mr. Fink, you recognize. Well you you made the statement. I was just gonna, for clarification purposes, for those that are here, these were criminal acts not associated with, at least at this point, associated with anybody from the university. They stole from them, uh, intercepted it was cybercrime or or not really cybercrime with a check, but it was. Criminal then that's been turned over normally from there, that's all we do, but, but the auditors are still required to disclose that. Of course, uh, and it's important that we continue to monitor this. Those of you who are coming back. Because we have some people who are so clever. Uh, that they don't care who they hurt. And that is why we're here as members of the committee to take action on this and if this repeats itself, then we have not put in then ATU has not put into place the proper safeguards, then we need to talk to them. Would you agree? Alright, then let us move on to the next one. Uh, next report, which was referred to the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general was for, uh, Arkansas State University system, which had one finding. Um, the university internal audit department conducted an audit of commissions paid to international recruitment agents by the ASU Jonesboro campus for the period June 30, 2015 through June 30, 2024. Internal audit reviewed supporting documentation related to international students' applications and commission payments to determine the accuracy and legitimacy of commissions paid to the agents. Internal audit discovered lack of internal controls, including inadequate supporting documentation for payments and lack of adequate internal control policies and procedures. Additionally, the review revealed staff of the International Programs department were instructed to utilize agents' codes. When international students had not listed an agent on their application or listed an agent that was not a partner of a state. Due to these circumstances, internal audit noted questionable payments made to agents and sub agents totaling $507,000 and $18,415 respectively, and that concludes the findings for ASU system. There are official officials present to answer any questions the committee may have. Would members from the ASU system please come to the table? Thank you, Madam Chair. Shane Broadway, ASU System. Todd Shields, Chancellor at A State. Hi, Mr. Chancellor, how are you? It's good to see you too before you one last time, Senator. Don't hold your breath that long. We have, I have, uh, let me just take a point of personal privilege and say that I had the honor of working with Mr. Broadway when I began my tenure in this in this body in 2003 and he was very active in education and he still is and Shane, I've appreciated so very, very much your friendship over the years. And, um, we're concerned. And which you like to address this Chancellor or is Shane gonna talk some more? I will talk first and then I'll turn over to the Chancellor, uh, to you that way. He may not. Uh, but this kind of explains the process within the ASU system, uh, inside the ASU system, we have our own internal audit process. So this was an issue that was identified by Chancellor Shields. He then reported that to our internal audit staff Mandy Walker, uh, is right over here. She can wave. Uh, she is our internal auditor for the entire system, uh, and so when he uncovered the issue, he reported it to Mandy. She is also a former legislative uh alier. Uh, and the Adam was also self-reported to legislative audit and when is that was identified. Uh, the matter has been investigated thoroughly and our internal processes and procedures have been created and, and modified around the international programs department to prevent uh further issues like the one noted in the report today, and I'll let the Chancellor if you want to have him elaborate more on what those processes now entail. Chancellor, would you like to address. can you hear me OK? Certainly. Um, so what we have now is if you're a recruiter, we have you log in to your own portal and you have your own secret login and password, and when you log in and you say I'm recruiting a student here. We have a record that you're recruiting that student and then when the student does come to a state, we verify that that was your recruiter that came through there. Then at the back end we're making sure that the student is enrolled and that they are in good standing and Then we will pay the recruiter the fees for recruiting a successful student. That wasn't in place before. Now nobody can just Say I recruited somebody when they may not have. Is this an official act, this recruitment? How does one become a recruiter? So we go through a very In-depth vetting process to work with, there are lots of international recruiters, um, but we work through um RFP and we worked through the recommendations we call references and we call other schools they used them successfully and we try to work with people that are doing the right thing, um, what in the spring of 23, someone came to me and said that they didn't think we're keeping records on everything, particularly with one recruiter in particular, that's when I went in and looked and said, yeah, I don't think that we are. We stopped payments, we stopped working with. That person in spring 23 and that's when we called me so this is a cottage industry. Uh, that was niche, I guess you would say, yes. Yeah. OK. And then the recruiter involved in this process is no longer one of our recruiters. Are there questions for the Chancellor for for former Senator Broadway. Yes. So just for my own education purposes, so, so you pay recruiters to recruit international students and what was happening is some international student would show up and the recruiter would claim credit for it even though they had nothing to do with the recruiting process. They would claim credit for it and then we would also have internally somebody that might say you recruited the student, um, you might say you recruited a student, but nobody could verify with the student that you really did help them. Senator English. So, thank you. So how much are recruiters paid? So usually it's very, it varies depending upon the success and the, and you're bringing the students that are completing a degree. We really want somebody to recruit students that are coming here and staying and then graduating from a state, um, but usually a fee, so it's usually based on the number of hours that they're taking, um, but it's very typical for pay like about $100 for every semester that they complete. That's just like a base, some are more than that. So if they stay two years and leave, then what happens? You get your money back or I do not get my money back. We try, we try to retain every student. If there's so much student leaving and going someplace else, we tried to do everything we could. So if it's paid on a semester basis $100 a semester if they stay 4 semesters, that's 400 bucks. Yeah, it does the the contracts with the with the recruiters do differ. predicated on what you think and how good they are at recruiting. Um, and you know somebody's a great recruiter and they bring us students that are fantastic and they're graduating at a state and they're doing contributing to society and doing great things and we're gonna pay them more because we really like what they're doing. Help me because higher ed is not my thing. Is there a company? That deals with recruitment or are these individual actors that deal with the recruitment. Both. Both, OK. Both. Right Further questions for the Chancellor for Mr. Broadway, Senator Petty. one more is, is there any recourse, uh, a blacklist, so to speak, that, that you can report these bad actors to, uh, so they don't go do this somewhere else. There isn't a, there is not that I know of it was a formal blacklist, but there is this, you know, informal connection between universities of saying, hey, this is what we, this was our experience with that recruiter. Further questions? Saying none, what's the pleasure of the committee, uh, Senator English moves review. Is there a second? Representative Tosh seconds discussion on the motion. Seeing none will place the question. All those in favor please say aye. Oppose no. The motion carries. Thank you gentlemen, so very, very much. Thank you and thank you. I think you recognized the next report to review is the Blytheville School District which uh was referred to the PA and the AG. Uh, they had 4 findings. During the auditor's review of board meeting minutes, the auditor noted on November 17, 2022, the board appointed the superintendent as the district's primary board dispersing officer in violation of Arkansas code. Finding two fixed asset records were not properly maintained, finding 3, the superintendent entered into a contract with a public relations company without board approval resulting in unauthorized payments to the vendor of $47,500 and finding for the auditor was unable to perform a test of teacher contracts because contracts were not retained for audit inspection. And that includes the findings for the Blythville School District. Uh, was anybody invited from Bliville to be here? Since there were no findings and this is the first time it's for the committee, and Dr. Perkins is no longer with the school district. Uh, I had visited with some folks from Blythville and I had a feeling that that might be the case. So since this is not a repeat finding. What is the pleasure of the committee? As Senator English Mill's review is there, Representative Duke seconds discussion on the motion. I know that they ought to show up, that's Mr. Clark saying, uh, all those in favor please say aye, opposed no. Motion carries Kip Delta. This is a repeat finding. Uh, KIP Delta, uh, yes, that was a, they have a repeat finding, um, they had 10 findings total, uh, instead of reading each one, I'll try to summarize, um, for findings 12, and 4 supporting documentation was not provided related to accounts receivable testing, repairs and maintenance expenditure testing and federal non-payroll testing, so the auditor was unable to determine the validity of accounts receivable and expenditures. Expenditures selected for testing. Finding 3 was related to unclear checks that were still listed on the bank reconciliation is outstanding. Finding 5 was the repeat finding and uh it dealt with equipment acquired using the education stabilization fund, the property records did not contain all information that is required by federal regulation. Finding 6 was for the school not performing a physical inventory of equipment purchased under the Education stabilization Fund program. Which is required by federal regulations. Finding 7, the audit testing found that 8 of the employees time certifications from a sample of 40 indicated that they worked less hours in the ESF program than what was actually charged to the program, which resulted in questioning costs of $1700. Finding 8 noted that 1 time certification from the sample of 40 was not signed by the employee, and there was no evidence of approval by a supervisor. Finding 9 noted that 1 employee's contract was not maintained, resulting in questioned cost of $477 in the ESF program. And finding 10 was related to the testing of lease agreements and proper supporting documentation for those leases for the amount recorded in the general ledger, and that concludes the findings for uh KIP Delta and obviously there are officials here to answer any questions the committee may have. Certainly. Would you identify yourself for the record, please. Yes, good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is George Cotton Senior. I'm the new interim chair of the board of directors, um. my day job, I serve as a vice chancellor for institutional advancement at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, uh, but I've been interim chair a little bit over 3.5 weeks, maybe about 4 weeks. All right. Yes ma'am. My name is Martha Madden. I'm the new finance director at Cape Delson. All right, and somebody looks familiar and like he used to hang around here a little bit here, uh, yes, ma'am, and it's, it's nice to be back and, uh, see everybody uh my name is Kevin Smith, uh, I am the interim executive director, and I think today starts my 3rd week, uh, on the job. And I'm also a former member of this August committee and chair of the subcommittee, uh, it was a long time ago, and I know that cuts no ice when it comes to this audit. It's worth mentioning. I don't you just throw it in, huh? What has happened, Kevin, because, uh, Kip's been around a long time. And you know, some of these findings we have here, we anticipated. Taking place because it's a new charter school or or something of that sort. But what has happened at KIPP because this is, this is kind of unusual. Madam Chair, if I can, um, as I, as I mentioned, I'm George Cotton, and one of the, um, I'm, I'm sorry, one of the reasons that I'm Is there a green light on? Yes, it is. OK. One of the reasons I'm, I'm at the table in addition to the fact that I grew up in Phillips County. He in the West Toland is my home. Um, but as I said earlier, I'm also vice chancellor for institutional advancement at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, and many of our students come from the Arkansas Delta. So when I was approached to serve as a member of the KIP board like you, Senator Chesterfield, uh, I was excited because of Kip's reputation. Uh, Kevin and I did not know each other personally before I came to the board, but interestingly enough, you can probably look at me and tell I've been around a while. I played football with his brother years and years ago, but The findings, um, I don't have to tell you are not only serious but they impact quite frankly the educational integrity of the organization and what we're supposed to be doing, um, let me tell you the things that we have done. Um, realizing how serious they were we made several immediate changes, one, we immediately removed the former executive director and superintendent, uh, Mr. James Boyd. In addition to that, as a member of the board, I've been on the board a couple of years, but uh if you've been on boards before, you know you rely on both the administration and board leadership to keep the rest of the board informed of what was going on. Uh, we've since restructured and reorganized the board. I'm the new chair, so we've, in addition to removing the executive director, we've also had a new change at at the top, uh Ms. Madden is our new finance director. So the reason you kept hearing the titles of interim executive director. new finance director and interim chairs because we realized that while the board and I'm here speaking uh not just as an individual from Phillips County, but I'm speaking on behalf of the board and I'm here to say uh we take this very seriously. We own the need to correct it and we're going to correct it and while the board may not have been asleep at the switch, we're most certainly nodding and we're here saying that we're gonna get this right, uh, we believe we have the right team in place and uh Mr. Smith. And Miss Madden will give you more specifics. The other thing I will say in addition to that is we've also taken a deep dive into the entire financials of the district. We're revisiting almost every contract with vendors, suppliers we're taking a look at every conference, every workshop, if there's a $1 being spent, we're now looking at it and kept Delta too as you stated, Senator, get the uh get the university, uh, get the institution kept back to where it's supposed to be. Thank you. Ms. Byness director. Yes ma'am. What you got to say? Um, I will say so in the past year, the whole finance team at Kit Delta dissolved, so there was everyone that was a part. It's no longer there, um. I came from Arkansas Public School Resource Center, so I actually, I worked there for about a year and 7 months or so, um, so when I came from there, I knew I wanted to go back to my roots. Kip Delta is my alum, so I graduated from there. You don't have to say how long. Um, but so Kit Delta means a lot to me. That's why I wanted to go back and uh help out as much as I could. And I think we're on the right road. We're getting there, um, this past year has been rough with just turnover, so, um, we're back to. Trying to get stability and get back on track. Do you have sufficient staff for separation of duties and that sort of thing so that uh 11 hand will know what the other one's doing and and you can also watch out for each other, yes ma'am. OK. All right Get madam chair members of the committee. I, I want to point out we also, we stole Martha from the Resource Center and uh we've also contracted with them to help Martha get all of this resolved and hopefully it will and repeat findings were always my pet peeve when I was on the other side of this table. Um, and also people that said, well, I wasn't here then, so that's what we're saying I wouldn't hear them, but um, but we have already made changes where I want you to hear with contract and and, uh, Scott and Ken are in the room, private schoolsource Center Smith. Uh, I don't know. Are, are you sure you're in good hands? You can't, um, And we've brought Ms. Madden on. And already begun to to make the changes in real time that are recommended here and fiscal in this fiscal year. So we hope the next audit looks better and also, and we appreciate any guidance. We would like to, this was a private audit. Um Nothing against private auditors, but uh we have and, and we, we would like to. Recommend that we go back to state audits. And legislative audit to do our audits, um. It shows transparency, I think, plus I can read them and understand them better myself, uh, and I think they uh. I mean, I think we can. Uh, trust what they say, but more importantly, you can trust what they say, not that you can't trust private auditors, but I did plus it saves us money, that's a big reason and right now we're trying to do a lot of that. And if you will contact Mr. Fink before you leave and give him your information. He will walk you through that process and it is a cost saver. And it does bring, I think, more transparency. Uh, to the process because I know that's what you want to do. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. Other questions for the lady and the gentleman at the table. Senator Clark, you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have been since I've been in the legislature, been a huge fan. Advocate, defender, supporter of KIPP. I've done a great job for the students and families in that area, uh, you've done a great job for the state as a lighthouse to what can be done. Uh, where we, uh, were previously failing and you've caused others to raise. Uh, uh, their level. Has this when you see this much. That's not been done. Has this led over into other. things. I have concerns, uh, that if we weren't. If we weren't taking care of this, were we taking care of of the other. Things in education. If I could, Senator, I, I think you're really on to something. I'm, I'll be honest, um. These are lagging indicators. Let's just be honest, uh, the reality and and Director Smith and I have talked about this. This is was a clear warning shot for us to take a clear look at operational dynamics in the districts to look at uh educational delivery, so the answer to your question is yes, this did in fact bleed over into other areas and we are also immediately moving to do that. We're moving some of the staff who quite frankly, we believe we we're misplaced. We have very talented people who were in the wrong place but who were saying to us, this is not the best. way to educate children but who weren't listened to. And we're moving some of those people who are veteran educators into positions to strengthen the education on the curriculum side uh we're also taking a look at basic delivery we had staff, quite frankly, after COVID, uh, we had contracts that never should have been let with with virtual education and virtual delivery and as a you know administrator at the university virtual education has a place, but we over utilize that so we're we're correcting that as well so that's a long answer to say yes, uh, but we've already all. Ready move to address many of those that aren't even pointed out, but we were able to identify in advance now sounds like you're on top of it. I, I hope that you are. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Clark, the, um, There is a greater enrollment. AI that had been in the past, is that correct? Or have you lost it? No, Senator, unfortunately, uh, as I said earlier, this is a lagging indicator enrollment at certain areas are down. Our enrollment at the elementary level has pretty much stabilized like many uh charter and private school institutions, the high school, we've got a lot of work to do in that area. The population in our Helena schools are much stronger than in our Bliible school. We've got a lot of work to do, but with the internal controls and the changes we're making real in real time, we're literally making some changes today, um. We believe that we're not only going to be able to to stabilize but to address many of the concerns not only that are pointed out, we've already began to as a director, um, Smith said implement many of the findings or recommendations that are pointed out in this report. So what was your state grade, Mr. Cotton, or Doctor Cotton and I appreciate the promotion, Senator Chesterfield. I've been called a lot of things, it is so. Uh, uh, Director Smith may be able to more adequately report. We had several schools that, uh, quite frankly, uh, needed work. We finished last year with I think at least a couple of schools that were were the schools, um, and we had, again, we did better at the elementary level, uh, unfortunately, because we, we didn't do a lot of things that we were supposed to do and in too many cases the lonely children stayed with us, the more challenging of an experience they had, um, director Smith again might be able to provide more specific. Well, I had read the report and it was somewhat surprising to me that Kip's grapes were where they are and um it is an indication of a greater issue. And so I anticipate that with the new leadership that you guys are providing and the financial integrity that you're bringing to the table that perhaps you can turn this around, um, because I've never been a big fan of charter schools, let me just say that from the beginning. That's not, that's not been my thing, however, If kids do well. That is my thing. That is my thing. And so, um, I do not root For failure. All of us want children to succeed no matter where they are. But you agree Not only do I agree, uh, senator, but one of the realities and and Kevin and I, I mentioned that we didn't know each other before, but we talk all the time now, most of the time 3 or 4 days a week because not only do I believe that, I, again, this, this sounds kind of oxymoronic, but I too was not a a fan of Charter and public schools, excuse me, in private schools, uh, but I do believe in educational options and alternatives and if people, you know, we stepped up to do this, no one made. Just do this. We volunteer to, to do this and you know I just kind of learned that you know parents send you the best kids they have. They don't keep the good kids at home and send the bad kids to school, so it's our responsibility to educate every child, uh, and that's what we're doing at KIPP and the reason we're making the changes, senator, is because there were a lot of things and a lot of practices that we implemented that really didn't make sense. So we realize now. And we believe we've got the right person in place in Director Smith, uh, he knows his way around not only the Capitol, he knows his way around Phillips County, uh, Ms. Madden is a veteran finance uh leader and we just believe, especially with the structural changes we made on the board and the institution that we can get this right and as I said, I'm a product of Phillips County, born right there in Lexa, Arkansas, grew up picking cotton and chopping beans, so I, I know what it's like to provide a child with an educational opportunity, whether it'sIP. whether it's hell in the West Helena, and we're gonna do that and we're committing to you today that this team is going to make the changes necessary to turn the district around. Further questions from the committee. Senator English. Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Clark, you're Oh you were done? OK, Senator Eli, thank you very much. I, I guess that it, it, it has been sort of disappointing to me to see whereIP is right now because I know when we started out with Kip, it was nationally recognized. And, and kids were doing really well and, and I'm not sure what happened there, but, um, I'm pleased to see I don't think we want to see anybody fail anything fail, um, and I appreciate and I hope to goodness that you're able to do, bring it back to where it was before. I know that your goal. Uh, Mr. Tash, you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate you all being here today and thank you for your answers. I just want to make sure that I understand that I've noticed in each one of these findings is, uh, uh, the monies that are involved, one of them is a little over a million dollars and there's $47,000 and I believe there's almost $300,000 in one of the findings, and it was $15,000 and it just goes on with each finding. And my question is simply this, has that money, have you been able to account for that money? Uh, that's been mentioned in these findings and is that money been uh restored to the proper funds, and is it all been accounted for my answer to that would be. No. But that's why we've contracted with our Public School Resource Center, Hars Madden, and changed, we had a major leadership change and we are in the process of, of answering that question, yes, and, and also, you know, I think a lot of it was. Our perception so far is most of it was. Improper coding, improper bookkeeping. And we haven't found anything, um. That I would call, you know, Criminal At least not at this point, um, that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen, but there's no indication of that, mostly just, um. Uh, nonfeasance when you, you don't mean to, but you're just not doing it and they just weren't doing what needed to be done for whatever reason. So what we're trying to do is not only do going forward what what audit and, and what this audit recommends, but also we are very much in the process of going back and fixing all those things and plugging those, you know, information places with answers. I appreciate. OK, well, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I appreciate. your answer. But when you see findings like that, where you've got, you know, probably totaling up close to a couple of million dollars. You just want to make sure that, uh, you know, that it's been accounted for and I, if I understand you correctly, you're not really finding anything that will lead to criminal issue. It's more of a coding issue and you, you're correcting that. So, OK, sounds good. Thank you, Madam Chair, Senator Clark. Yes, I just want to say hopefully we won't see you back here, uh, but I personally would like to hear. how things are going from time to time, because I, I think you have been very crucial to the state and uh we hope that you get things back on track. Further discussion. What is the pleasure of the committee? I have a motion for review from Senator English. Is there a second? Seconded by Senator Clark further discussion on the motion. Seeing now will place the question. All those in favor please say aye. Opposed? No. I wish you the very, very best of luck. Um, but Richard Nixon say you won't have me to kick around anymore, uh, I'm going home. But I do hope that. We don't see you back down here. Chesterfield, I would be remiss if I did not thank you on behalf of the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff for your continuous support of the university you've been a champion of the university and uh I want to personally on behalf of the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff and our friends of course at Philander Smith University, thank you for your support. Thank you very very much. It's been my pleasure. Is there any other business that you come before the body? Senator Clark, we got, oh yeah, he has something too. Yes, Mr. Fink has something else too, but I'll recognize you first, of course. those Well, I'll recognize Mr. Fink first. There was one report on the last page that had no findings that was University of Central Arkansas, Staff recommends that be filed as reviewed. Senator Clark, you recognize. Thank you, Madam Chair. Point of personal privilege. The I could have done this perhaps better sitting up there. It gave me the chair. Don't you want it, no, no, I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining, uh, but it's more fitting that you be there last little bitty thing that I could do to honor you. um. We have brought it up in other places as we should have. Uh You have been an ally at times. You've been an opponent many times. But you've always been a friend. And you've always stood up for the Senate being the Senate. And for the high standards. Uh, that we expect from each other. And I don't think that all of my colleagues recognize. Uh, especially the newer ones, but I think even some of the older ones, how much you will truly be missed. Uh, the, you know, perhaps the train was coming down the tracks and perhaps you were fixing to get hit by the caboose, but I don't think so. Uh, but Your Being as sharp as you are and as steadfast as you are, you have kept us out of trouble sometimes when we didn't realize that you kept us out of trouble. And we, you will sorely be missed, and I very much appreciate you and I know we all do. Thank you so much. You're so kind. Thank you, all of you, you are treasured by me. Uh, I will see you tomorrow. While we look at something that I've been pushing for for a very long time. And that's accountability. That's what this committee is all about. It isn't about gotcha. It isn't about being mean to people, but it is about the accountability that we, the people should expect. From those individuals who are tasked. With the educational institutions of this state and with that I wish you a pleasant rest of the day, and God bless each and every one of you.