Mike Keathley, Commissioner of the Office of Administration, is setting a new deadline — this Friday — for state Auditor Susan Montee “to provide his office with the identities of the staff members” in Attorney General Jay Nixon’s office “who provided the false information” when the auditor audited Nixon’s office last year.

Keathley set the new deadline because Montee ignored his old one — last Wednesday. Montee said last week that she wasn’t going to comply with any request from Keathley for the identities of any Nixon aides. Among other things, she said she disagreed with Keathley’s premise that her office was lied to.

At issue: Until a few months ago, Nixon had been using his taxpayer-funded state car when he made political stops and trips, saying that he was attorney general 24/7, and the car was equipped with the necessary equipment so he could conduct his official functions while traveling.

When Montee’s staff audited Nixon’s office, his staff said that Nixon used the car only for official business. Montee says that wasn’t false information, since that’s how Nixon interpreted all travel.

OA disagrees, and Keathley says he wants the identities of the Nixon staffers so he can question them further. In his release, Keathley contends that the Nixon staffer also may have broken a state law that bars withholding information from state auditors.

Nixon has since obtained a campaign vehicle, and has reimbursed the state about $47,000 for three years worth of travel. He and the Office of Administration continue to haggle over whether his office has adequately documented the political-private miles used to come up with the reimbursement figure.

At Nixon’s request, Montee’s staff is reviewing what documentation he has sent to OA to see if it is in line with what Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, provided to OA when he reimbursed for similar travel.

Kinder also has obtained a campaign car.

Montee, by the way, says that state law doesn’t allow such reimbursements because state law doesn’t allow non-official use of the state cars.

Gov. Matt Blunt , who Nixon is challenging, travels to campaign events in a vehicle provided by the Highway Patrol, and accompanied by patrol officers, 24/7. The difference is that Blunt is covered by a law, passed in 2005, that legalized a practice in place for decades.

In his release, Keathley said he “is not ruling out using other means to secure” the information he’s seeking from Montee about Nixon.

“I posed my request to you in hopes that I would be spared the use of other more intrusive legal processes,” Keathley wrote. “If you will not assist me as the State of Missouri’s Auditor by December 21st, I will seek another method of obtaining the information I have requested.”