Schaff said originally his office had approved an audit into AOC purchases last March, but that plan was scrapped when AOC officials convinced the audit council not to do the audit in lieu of a court internal audit.

"We received a letter from the Administrative Office of the Courts that said they were doing an audit on the issue," Schaff said, so the audit was dropped from the Legislature's requested list.

But the internal audit was never made public.

Johnson said the results of the AOC audit were presented to the management committee of the Judicial Council, whose meetings are not open to the public. Johnson said the management committee has the authority to act on behalf of the council as a whole and had reviewed the audit and made recommendations for training without having to forward the audit to the entire council, whose meetings are open to the public.

Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham, who is chairwoman of the Judicial Council, declined to comment on whether she was aware of the internal audit and AOC's actions to solve audit concerns.

Schaff said his office is more than happy to conduct an audit but that it will require a request by a member of the Utah Legislature to get another audit on the Legislature's list.

"If that's of legislative interest, then we're more than willing to do it," Schaff said.

So far, no lawmaker has stepped forward to make such a request.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com