A legislative audit will examine select consulting contracts by the Forrest City School District, but the particulars of what will be examined are unknown at this point, according to a report approved Friday by the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee.
Legislative Joint Auditing Committee co-chairman Sen. Ron Caldwell, R-Wynne, brought the motion forward to the Executive Committee on Thursday, and it was unanimously approved.
"I had several individuals in the district do some [Arkansas Freedom of Information Act requests], and it brings up consulting contracts that I think Audit needs to look at," Caldwell said.
Legislative Audit staff said Friday that they don't have a time frame for when the audit will be completed or available for review.
The Forrest City School District was one of several schools that received a group of teachers in the summer who were trained for placement in high-poverty schools as part of a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville program that was funded by the Walton Family Foundation.
About three out of every four students in the approximately 600-student Forrest City School District are considered low-income, according to state data.
The goal of Legislative Audit is to serve the General Assembly, the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee and Arkansans by promoting sound financial management and accountability of public funds. It issues more than 1,000 financial audits, reviews and special reports annually.
Schools falling under the scrutiny of Legislative Audit is nothing new.
Earlier this year Arkansas Legislative Audit released a report on the University of Arkansas System that included findings of unauthorized disbursements, allegations of misappropriation of funds and property, improper transactions, fraudulent use of a credit card and unauthorized changes to a vendor master file that ranged from about $1,300 to $336,000.
An additional finding revealed that five University of Arkansas System campuses did not complete and submit campus-level financial statements with the system office in a timely manner, which meant administrators were unable to provide a consolidated report to Arkansas Legislative Audit staff by the original deadline, which delayed the audit.