(The Center Square) – The Arkansas Joint Legislative Joint Auditing Committee agreed without discussion on Friday to an expedited audit of a purchase of a lectern by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office that has drawn national attention.
The purchase of the lectern for more than $19,000 was initially paid for on a state credit card, Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, told a subcommittee on Thursday that the expenditure was reimbursed by the Republican Party of Arkansas the day Sanders signed changes to the state’s Freedom of Information Act into law.
Lawmakers agreed to shield records about the governor’s security and security detail during a special session called by the governor in September. Sanders proposed a provision that would have kept communications between her and her cabinet secret, but that was stripped from the bill.
“On that podium purchase, whether it was a coincidence or whether it was not, I know that the Senate, we adjourned on 10:02 on the 14th of September. We had a bill signing that was somewhere close to noon and then I found out even this week that that reimbursement was actually done the same day that we left out of here,” Hickey said.
Roger Norman of Arkansas Legislative Audit told the Joint Legislative Auditing Executive Committee the audit would begin as soon as it is approved.
Blogger Matt Campbell, who writes the Blue Hog Report, first showed a copy of the invoice on X, the social media site known as Twitter, last month after obtaining it through an open records request.
Sanders’ office has repeatedly called the situation “a manufactured controversy by left wing activists.”
