The Arkansas Lottery Commission is pursuing some adjustments to its auditing process in an effort to retain some revenue. Numbers released Tuesday show the lottery’s revenue dropping for a second consecutive year resulting in nearly $9 million dollars less in scholarship funds.
The lottery’s Audit and Legal Committee decided Wednesday to further explore procuring new software and hiring one additional full-time position and one part-time position to handle drawings, which they expect will reduce the role of a more costly Legislative Audit. Internal Auditor Matt Brown said Legislative Audit costs about $80 an hour while moving the work internally would cost about $30 an hour.
Director Bishop Woosley said the moves may be beneficial, but it’s not a solution to declining revenue.
“We’re talking tens, maybe thousands of dollars or maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars which always, again, good for scholarships. But in the grand scheme of things when you’re talking about millions of dollars that’s not real big. But again, we’re always looking for ways to cut the fat so to speak.” said Woosley.
Any changes to auditing will have to first be approved by the Lottery Commission itself. Proposals would then have to be passed through the legislature’s Lottery Oversight Committee in September.
Some members of the lottery committee also expressed interest in hiring an external auditing company to review internal auditing of the entirety of the lottery’s operations rather than having Legislative Audit review operations. No formal proposal for this was brought but some commission members indicated the idea to be something they want to pursue. That move would also require approval from a legislative oversight committee.
