By Mari Radtke
Friday evening, April 4 at Yesterday’s Memories in Sanborn became a center for public service education. Rob Sand, Auditor for the State of Iowa shared a little about the duties of the office he currently holds, how it functions and a little insight about his staff. The event, hosted and presented by “Gaza, IA Patriots” gave Dani Rehder of Sutherland the MC position along with Denise Steffen. The event opened with a prayer led by Mike Cooper of Primghar Church of Christ, also a “Gaza Patriot.” The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and the featured speaker, Sand, asked for everyone to join in the singing of “America the Beautiful.”
Sand, a former prosecutor with the Iowa Attorney General’s office, gave little history of the office of Auditor. He noted that the office is created by the Iowa Constitution, notably to serve as the “watchdog” for the citizens of the State of Iowa. He was clear and firm that government accountability is CENTRAL TO DEMOCRACY. The auditor’s charge is to “fix things” in government by identifying efficiency in delivering services and by reducing duplication. The office oversees the workings of state departments and the Universities.
Humor was a tool easily used to describe a variety of activity that is done in the auditor’s office. He first emphasized the primary responsibility and limitation of the office. He described it as “barking.” He explained that his office is to investigate and report its findings with recommendations for improvement. The office of auditor has no enforcement power. They focus on financial activity of state departments. The feature accomplishment of the Rob Sand as Iowa Auditor of State talked about his feature program started in 2019, to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. He identified about a 2 dozens communities and school districts in northwest area who have participated. The program has been copied by other states as well. It is called PIE – Public Innovations and Efficiencies. The program is complemented with “many bad puns.” Obtaining the online list and submitting it is referred to as entering the PIE contest. The list is the PIE chart. In fun, an idea that saves money is referred to as a PIE recipe. The program includes winning ideas/entities. Winners get a visit and an actual pie from Rob Sand. He joked about the days that he has to eat 5 slices of pie! The best part is that PIE saves taxpayers millions of dollars.
Sand supports the smaller and rural communities that make up Iowa life. He explained how he has adapted the jobs of his office to be decentralized. Jobs in the Iowa Auditor’s office do not require Des Moines residents. He spoke about how the state could support the full state with jobs located throughout the state. He shared how it saves taxpayers money by reducing the use of fuel and travel including meals and hotels. When the auditor staff is located close to where it needs to work, there is a net savings. He also lifted the Bachelor’s degree requirement to make jobs also available for Associate’s Degrees.
He spoke of legislation that has been passed that, in his mind as well as the minds of auditors and CPAs across the country who wrote to oppose certain legislation that would make waste, fraud and abuse easier. The law allows 8 categories of documents that an auditor can no longer look at when investigating a department or event. It is also no longer allowed in Iowa for the auditor to take and department or agency to court for the release of documents. A court appearance was replaced with a stacked 3-person panel. An example of use of this new law was shared and it revolves around the $100 million spent on the new school voucher program. The auditor’s office is still trying to obtain requested documents of the program to determine the money was spent as it was required to be spent. This law was later during questions described as the greatest pro-corruption law in Iowa history.
He went on to talk about the status of Iowa’s budget surplus. The long-term staff of CPAs at the auditor’s office say that the state’s $14 billion surplus is from additional COVID funds are set aside to backstop tax cuts. Sand believes this is a “fiscal time bomb.” He reported to the Sanborn crowd Friday that the proposed budget for 2026 fiscal year will draw on those dollars to back stop the spending without a sufficient tax levy. Sand says that at some point in the future the money will run out if the current budgeting continues.
Questions submitted by the public were asked. Most of the questions revolved in some way around the idea of public records. Sand responded to the first question about how to report a suspected case of governmental waste, fraud or abuse. He shared a personal story of getting sued protecting the identity of a person who made a complaint. Three major expenditures identified by the auditor’s office brought out an explanation of a specific use of funds used fraudulently by the governor’s office after being denied by the legislature to purchase a new software. The state was forced to repay the money because they illegally used $20,000,000 COVID funds. He explained the details of wasteful funds of used by the former movie credits program. That investigation ended in a prison term. He spoke to how school district audits are conducted. He explained findings of city and county examinations and how accountability might be imposed by the voters as a result of audit reports. Sand spoke to his dedication to public service. He explained in pretty clear detail rules about how different jurisdictions can legally spend tax dollars. He was also asked about why public records are still required to be published in a newspaper despite declining readership. He didn’t have an answer for that, but he does now. The source is verifiable and the public notice cannot ever be changed. Permanence of public records is the only antidote to waste, fraud and abuse.
The entire evening can be viewed on belltimescourier’s or sanbornpioneer’s YouTube channel. You can also view it on our websites and on our facebook pages.