The Arkansas state auditor (formally known as the auditor of state) is a constitutional officer within the executive branch of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Thirty-five individuals have occupied the office of state auditor since statehood. The incumbent is Dennis Milligan, a Republican who took office in 2023.
Powers and duties
In Arkansas, the state auditor serves as the general accountant or "bookkeeper" of state government.[1] As such, the auditor is responsible for preauditing claims against the state, issuing warrants on the state treasury in payment of claims approved, accounting for monthly revenues, expenditures, and cash balances by fund, enforcing the state's unclaimed property laws, and administering payroll to state legislators, elected executive branch officials and the judiciary.[2]
While the state auditor is the general accountant for the state, he or she is not the state's comptroller, which in the public sector is typically responsible for statewide financial accounting and reporting. That function is instead performed by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, which operates under the direction and supervision of the governor.[3] Similarly, the state auditor does not conduct financial or performance postaudits of state agencies and local governments. Rather, that is the job of the Division of Legislative Audit, whose head is appointed by and reports to the state legislature.[4] Instead, the state auditor's office occupies a role similar to that performed by accounts payable departments in the private sector.
^"Office of Auditor". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Little Rock, Arkansas: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System. February 11, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
^"Former State Auditor Dead". The Prescott daily news. Prescott, Ark. March 24, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved 17 September 2021.