LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas auditors are nearly done looking into the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and expect to issue a report on it by the end of March, a state official told lawmakers on Thursday.
Legislative Auditor Roger Norman told a panel that his office has interviewed 20 people about the lectern, which gained national attention and became the focus of intense scrutiny last fall. Sanders’ office has faced questions about the seemingly high price of the lectern, as well as its handling of public records about the purchase.
“Field work will continue at least through next week,” Norman told a subcommittee of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, which requested the audit in October. “We have sought to gather all relevant communications and financial records surrounding the purchase and reimbursement of the podium.”
The 3 1/4-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) blue and wood paneled lectern was bought in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from an events company in Virginia. The Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office has called the use of the state credit card an accounting error. Sanders’ office said it received the lectern in August.