Arkansas board of Corrections remains under fire for contract with attorney in litigation against state
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas legislators are not backing down on questions over the Board of Corrections’ contract with its attorney and how the attorney was hired for its litigation against the state.
Members of the Joint Performance Review Committee are claiming the contract was written up illegally and goes against the procurement law, meaning they can’t sign off on it.
Arkansas Legislative Council questions Board of Corrections over contract with independent lawyer
Right now, the board’s attorney is owed more than $100,000 dollars.
Thursday in the meeting, members of the board and the Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Corrections were questioned over how the attorney was hired and if they have concerns over a contract he made changes to, which legislators claim holds the state liable.
CFO Chad Brown testified that while he does not believe there was any intent of wrongdoing, there was a lack of process.
“I don’t think there’s a process in place on the board’s side of the equation, because again, they’d never gone down this path before,” Brown said.
Senator Ben Gilmore (R-Crossett) is also accusing the board of violating the Freedom of Information Act and open-meeting policies multiple times.
“We’re trying to shed a light on the fact that there’s no transparency, they’re not following the statutes and procurement process and all these things the legislature has created for the people and to protect the people,” Gilmore said.
The next meeting is April 22 and here’s the important thing to know; members who weren’t there Thursday and the board’s attorney have been subpoenaed to be at that meeting.
This includes member, Alonza Jiles, who KARK 4 News has been reporting on for months.
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Jiles is under fire for lawsuits he’s named in accusing him of covering up child sexual abuse at the Lord’s Ranch.
Legislators have been asking him to come testify to the committee and he’s not shown up, so now they’re subpoenaing him to answer questions about the contract and hiring of the board’s attorney, as well as the push for him to step down.
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