Oklahoma Supreme Court's operations director fired

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state Supreme Court's director of operations has been fired. <br><br>Kenny Fikes' dismissal follows political fallout for the court from an audit earlier this summer

Tuesday, September 17th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state Supreme Court's director of operations has been fired.

Kenny Fikes' dismissal follows political fallout for the court from an audit earlier this summer that criticized employees and brought one resignation.

Fikes' termination letter did not link him to the controversy, but said his position was being eliminated because of budget cuts. Fikes' salary was $71,750, or about $13,000 less than what the Supreme Court will pay a Tulsa man it has hired as its project manager.

Court administrator Howard Conyers said the project manager position was required by law while Fikes' job was not.

The court's former computer system director, Kevin King, resigned in July, just before the release of the audit that found computer employees had mishandled more than $3.3 million in purchases. The audit also said employees filed false travel claims and used state-owned computers to play online games and set up a private business. Auditors said the Administrative Office of the Courts could not account for 62 equipment items valued at $78,656.

So far, the court's statewide computer system has been installed in eight counties.