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The auditor, one of the state’s seven constitutional offices, serves as the general accountant for the State of Arkansas. The auditor oversees the balance sheets of state agencies and disburses funds on behalf of the State, as well as disbursing select federal funds, keeping “all public accounts, books, vouchers, documents, and all papers relating to the contracts of the state and its debts, revenue, and fiscal affairs which are not required by law to be placed in some other office or kept by some other person,” according to the Arkansas Code.
The office of auditor has been in existence since Arkansas was made a territory of the United States in 1819, and very little has changed regarding the auditor’s duties since that time. Act 29 of 1877 made it a duty of the auditor to publish receipts and expenditures of public money, in addition to the biennial report delivered to the governor at the beginning of each term of the Arkansas General Assembly. Act 17 of 1883 required the auditor to report the total amount of warrants (checks) still outstanding as well as the balance unexpended regarding any appropriation. Act 334 of 1953 required that the auditor keep a register of all checks drawn upon state agency funds in his or her office. The auditor is responsible for keeping an account between the state and the state treasurer as well as between the state and the United States. Other duties include directing prosecutions regarding official delinquencies “in relation to the assessment, collection, and payment of the revenue against all persons who by any means become possessed of public money or property and fail to pay over and deliver it and to direct prosecutions against all debtors of the state”; procuring “an abstract and description of all taxable lands within the state”; and annually furnishing “the proper officer in each county in the month of January a descriptive list of all taxable lands in the county not previously furnished.”
The office of the auditor encompasses five divisions: Administration; the Data Processing Division, which physically prints warrants issued by the state; the Warrant Division, which processes said checks; the Accounting Division; and the Unclaimed Property Division. A project of the last division is the annual Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt, initiated by Julia Hughes Jones during her term in office to advertise assets declared abandoned.
AUDITOR NAME
PARTY
BEGAN
ENDED
Elias N. Conway
—
1836
1841
A. Boileau
May 1841
July 1841
1849
C. C. Danley
1854
William Read Miller
1855
A. S. Huey
1857
1860
H. C. Lowe
1861
1864
J. R. Berry
Rep
1866
Rep (Lib)
1868
Rep (Brin)
1873
Stephen Wheeler
Rep (Min)
1874
Dem
1877
John Crawford
1883
A. W. Files
1887
W. S. Dunlop
1893
C. B. Mills
1897
Clay Sloan
1901
T. C. Monroe
1905
Avery E. Moore
1909
John R. Jobe
1913
John M. Oathout
L. L. Coffman
1915
M. F. Dickinson
1917
Hogan Oliver
1921
James Guy Tucker
1925
J. Carrol Cone
1929
J. Oscar Humphrey
1935
Charles E. Parker
1937
1956
F. Nolan Humphrey
Jimmie “Red” Jones
1957
1979
Jimmie Lou Fisher
1981
Julia Hughes Jones
1995
Gus Wingfield
2003
Jim Wood
2011
Charlie Daniels
2015
Andrea Lea
Note: Auditors were appointed by the state legislature until 1864. No party is listed for those appointed, including M. F. Dickenson and F. Nolan Humphrey, to complete terms. Julia Hughes Jones switched to the Republican Party in 1993.
Historical Report of the Secretary of State. Little Rock: Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office, 2008.
Staff of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
Last Updated 4/6/2018
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