Pie charts from Arkansas Legislative Audit show the percentage of time State Police aircraft were used by the governor’s office between June 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2023. (Screenshot)
A special audit of Arkansas State Police spending on security for the governor showed the agency has complied with state law, a legislative panel heard Friday.
The audit conducted by the independent Arkansas Legislative Audit office found some underreported expenses in ASP’s quarterly reports that were corrected.
Lawmakers on the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee accepted the report with almost no discussion.
Auditor James David Gasaway told the committee the audit identified $4.15 million dollars in security-related expenses for the executive office between June 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2023. The time frame covered the last months of former Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s term and the first year of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ term.
The audit “indicated no instances of noncompliance with state laws or regulations or with public purpose doctrine,” Gasaway said.
The Joint Auditing Committee requested the review of ASP spending on security and travel for the governor after Act 7 of 2023 exempted those expenditures from public disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The law also requires ASP to provide quarterly reports to the Arkansas Legislative Council on aggregate expenses for executive security, including personnel and their travel, vehicle fuel and maintenance costs and aircraft, but information about who traveled and their destinations remain hidden from the public.
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Auditors reviewed the quarterly reports filed by ASP under Act 7 for accuracy and found that total expenditures were understated because the reports did not include fuel and maintenance costs or aircraft costs.
The quarterly security expense report for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2023, showed a total of $548,694; the report for Dec. 31 showed $862,693 in governor’s security spending, according to the audit.
But those reports did not include vehicle fuel and maintenance expenses of $7,276 for those six months nor $15,008 in aircraft costs, the audit report showed.
Gasaway noted that ASP’s report for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, does include vehicle and aircraft expenses.
The audit also determined state police used an outdated hourly flight cost for the state airplane and helicopter, Gasaway said. The agency had been using $1,015 per hour to calculate the cost of flying the airplane and $658 an hour to fly the state helicopter, which led auditors to conclude aircraft costs had been underreported by $58,973, according to the audit.
ASP has since updated the hourly calculator as a result, Gasaway said. It now uses $1,839 an hour for the airplane and $1,287 an hour for the helicopter.
Auditors also calculated how much flight time for both aircraft could be attributed to use by the governor and how much for normal state police functions, Gasaway said. Hutchinson and Sanders accounted for 43% of the plane’s total flight time and 2% of the helicopter’s during the review period, according to the audit.
Gasaway said auditors also conducted a full search of ASP expenditures to make sure no security expenses were coded incorrectly in the state’s financial system.
“No additional executive expenditures were noted as a result of this expanded testing,” he said.
Lawmakers asked for the audit last October at the same time they asked for an audit of the purchase of a $19,000 lectern by the governor’s office. Auditors presented their report on the lectern purchase in April, finding several potential violations of state law. In June, Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones declined to pursue the matter further.
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