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Auditor of State General Information

  • The Auditor of State is one of seven constitutional officers in Arkansas. Other constitutional officers are the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, Attorney General, Secretary of State and Land Commissioner.

  • The Auditor acts as the general accountant for the State, keeping track of all fund and appropriation balances of all state agencies, and writing the warrants (checks) in payment of the liabilities of the State.

  • The Auditor is disbursing officer for certain federal funds, for approximately 1,000 individuals including Supreme and Appellate Justices, Circuit and Chancery Judges, Prosecuting and Special Prosecuting Attorneys, Court Reporters, Trial Court Administrative Assistants, the House of Representatives, the Senate, county Juvenile Probate and Intake Officers and Continuing Education Funds for County and Circuit Clerks, Treasurers and Collectors.

  • The Auditor is a member of the State Board of Finance and, by statute, is the administrator of the Unclaimed Property Act. He serves on the Commercial Mobile Radio Services/Emergency Telephone Services Board and as an ex-officio board member of the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System and the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System. The Auditor serves on the Boards of Continuing Education for County and Circuit Clerks, County Treasurers and County Collectors, and administers their continuing education program.


    Services


    Administration
    This division coordinates all other divisions and oversees the official duties of the office. It handles research, personnel, purchasing, and special projects including legislation.

    Data Processing Division
    This division physically prints all the warrants (checks) issued by the state, maintains each state agency's daily balance, and makes sure each agency appropriation has a sufficient balance before the warrants are released. It produces the warrant register and microfilms cashed warrants.

Handwritten records in this division begin October 1, 1838. From that date through December 31, 1839, 146 warrants were issued in the new State of Arkansas. An IBM AS400 System (a mid- range, main frame computer) is now used and it produces approximately 3 million warrants totaling over $11 billion per year.

Warrant Division
This division processes all warrants produced by the Data Processing Division. It is responsible for mailing or releasing the warrants to the state agencies.

Accounting Division
This division maintains financial records for the offices of the Auditor of State and the Lt. Governor and handles the disbursement of over $46 million to those groups under the disbursement responsibility of the Auditor. As a part of its disbursing responsibility, this division handles all insurance, retirement, payroll deductions and related reports for the various groups.

Unclaimed Property Division
Unclaimed Property is intangible personal property (cash, stocks, bonds, oil and gas royalties, credit balances) or safe deposit box contents not delivered to or received by the apparent owner within the time prescribed by the Unclaimed Property Act.

On November 1 of each year, holders with unclaimed property must file a report with the Auditor of State and remit all property outstanding for one to five years on their books as of June 30 of that year. The Auditor then has three years in which to attempt to locate the rightful owner before the funds are deposited into the State General Fund where they continue to be held for the benefit of the rightful owner.

Annually, a list of the currently reported owners of unclaimed property is published as "The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt". All owners of record since 1985 are listed on the Internet at https://www.ark.org/auditor/unclprop/index.html.

In addition to voluntary reporting, the division conducts compliance audits of holders in the state and receives money from out of state holders through unclaimed property reporting services and clearing houses. Arkansas participates in a reciprocal exchange program that brings Arkansas assets reported to other states back to Arkansas.