Legislative Joint Auditing – October 8, 2009
Posted on October 8th, 2009
Date & Time: Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Location: Room 171, State Capitol
Committee Information: Members on Committee
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12129/I7832.pdf
Attachments: none
The duties of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee shall be to provide for the auditing of each department, institution, board, commission, office, and agency of the state government for the purpose of furnishing the General Assembly with information vital to the discharge of its constitutional duties. (A.C.A. 10-3-407)
9:08 am – Rep. Hoyt called the meeting to order and presented opening remarks. The minutes of the previous meeting adopted.
9:10 am – Sen. Glover presented the Executive Committee Report. It was adopted without question or comment.
9:11 am – Rep. Pyle presented the report on Counties and Municipalities. There are several issues with repeat findings with city officials who failed to attend the Legislative Audit that were held until the officials appear before the committee. Some were referred to the Prosecuting Attorney. The report was adopted without questions or comment. Here is a link to those audits covered in this report. Take a close look at the report for Helena / West Helena.
9:14 am – Rep. Cheatham presented the Educational Institutions report. There were issues referred to the Prosecuting Attorney. The report was adopted without question or comment. Here is a link to audit reports covered by this subcommittee.
9:16 am – Rep. House presented the report on State Agencies. Details of this report can be seen in yesterday’s blog post. The big thing is the audited personnel not appearing before the committee. Rep. Hoyt, chairman, made the point at while the subcommittee may not have subpeona power, the full committee does and he believe that the committee should support them. Senator Faris agreed and pointed out that the message communicated should not be some weak statement but have to put some teeth in the language. These audit reports can be found here.
9:22 am – Sen. Hendren made the point that there needs to be more consequences, perhaps cutting off revenue.
9:24 am – Senator Jimmy Jeffress has made a motion that the people involved need to be informed that they will be subpeonaed if they do not appear before the subcommittees.
9:26 am – I believe that I have heard this motion every year that I have been down here. The legislators seem to be more frustrated than I have heard in the past and are perhaps more likely to follow through with consequences than has traditionally been the case.
9:29 am – Sen. Faris said that sometimes the terminology communicates urgency for compliance. He has suggested a change in the language for the next session from “invitation” to appear to “compelled” to appear. The motion by Sen. Jeffress passed.
9:35 am – Another problem the legislature faces is the failure of the local prosecuting attorneys to actually bring charges against those discovered to allegedly be committing various forms of fraud, waste, abuse, and other breaches of law by the Legislative Audit Committee.
9:38 am – The Audit Report for Newton County is currently being presented. It was taken out of order to accomodate legislators that need to leave early to attend a funeral. This report looks like the a book and contains some very serious offenses. This report has been referred to the FBI. Here is a link to this report.
9:46 am – We are currently reviewing the Performance Audit for Selected Programs of the Consolidated Incentive Act for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. This audit report may be viewed here.
9:49 am – We are now reviewing the Special Report for the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development Development District for the Northwest Arkansas Solid Waste District. This report can be reviewed here. Rep. King asked if we could have a representative of the ethics commission come to the next meeting to answer some of the questions the legislators are presenting. The concern here is members of boards being awarded contracts over which they have influence as a member of the board.
10:16 am – Senator Laverty asked that report be adopted with the exception that it could be pulled back for evaluation by the ethics commission. Motion passed.
10:20 am – Committee adjourned.
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