× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones said Tuesday he intends to go forward with a scheduled audit of state Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office.

“He has the right to hire his own auditor, but it doesn’t preclude us from doing our own audit,” Jones told the Republican Women’s Club of Tulsa County.

“We plan on doing the audit. … Our job is to audit for the citizens of Oklahoma, and we’re going to do it.”

Jones’ statement brought applause from the audience of close to 100.

Pruitt’s office informed Jones two weeks ago that it planned to hire its own auditor for a periodic audit mandated by state law. The Attorney General’s Office objected to statements Jones had made and doubted his office’s ability to impartially audit the department.

An increasingly iconoclastic figure within the Republican-led state government, Jones also took some pokes at the Legislature and, without naming names, took Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Dunn’s side in a spat with state finance secretary Preston Doerflinger and other conservatives.

“That gentleman (Dunn) is right,” Jones said. “He’s absolutely right, he’s right on track in the fact we are not dealing with the situations.