State of Iowa Auditor Rob Sand holds virtual town hall meeting with Allamakee County, discusses variety of topics with locals

by Joe Moses

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand met with a small group of individuals via Zoom web-conferencing during a virtual meeting relating to Allamakee County Wednesday, November 18 as part of a 99-County Town Hall Virtual Tour. Sand participated in other virtual meetings relating to Scott, Clinton, Jackson, Dubuque and Clayton Counties earlier that same day.

Sand began the meeting by discussing the decision to use virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic with outdoor meetings allowing for social distancing being a possibility next year during warmer months. Sand explained that an hour has been allotted for the virtual meeting with questions being welcome and that he would be providing an update relating to work taking place in his office.

Sand discussed changes that have taken place since he began serving as Iowa State Auditor in 2019 with office reforms including the investment in new software and an update of policies and procedures in the State of Iowa employee handbook. Sand said that these changes made the decision to allow work from home much easier when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Sand estimated that 20% of his office staff has returned to work at the office with social distancing being practiced, with the remaining 80% still working from home. Sand indicated that allowing staff to work from home was originally intended to create flexibility for employees and decrease turnover but has worked well as an option during the pandemic.

Sand also discussed a July audit of the Test Iowa reporting system in response to concerns expressed by County and State employees. Sand said that the State Hygienic Lab at the University of Iowa should be reporting test results immediately to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) as required by law. Sand advised that, instead, test data travels from the State Hygienic Lab through two private companies in Utah before being transferred to the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and, lastly, on to IDPH. Sand advised that the word “immediately” should not just mean “as quickly as possible” but rather “directly” with two Supreme Court decisions being in agreement with that definition. Sand shared that he hopes to see that test reporting system changed or updated.

Sand also discussed accountability and oversight relating to the large amount of funding being spent to combat the pandemic. He further discussed being part of a bipartisan team conducting audits in 15 different states, each working individually to answer questions in their respective state, with that information to be used to compare and contrast to assist states in developing better practices and to point policy making in a better direction.

Sand indicated that auditing on the state level is taking place relating to pandemic-related spending and compliance with $1.25 billion in Federal funding being received for pandemic relief needs that were not anticipated or budgeted during the previous year. Sand discussed Governor Kim Reynolds’ decision to authorize the spending of approximately $21 million in pandemic relief funds for the Work Day software upgrade for accounting and human resources work in State government. Sand advised that the State of Iowa had signed a contract for this upgrade in 2019 prior to the pandemic with Federal auditors in agreement that this is not an allowable expense for pandemic relief funds. Sand further advised that the Governor’s Office is appealing this matter at the Federal level. He suggested that his office wanted to see this matter corrected due to the $1.25 billion in pandemic relief needing to be spent by the end of the calendar year and if incorrectly spent, the $21 million spent on Work Day would need to be paid back to the Federal Government at the expense of Iowa tax payers.

Sand moved into discussion of the State’s PIE Program which he explained stands for Public Innovations and Efficiencies Program. Sand described the program as promoting cost savings and stretching tax payer dollars through money saving practices at the local and county level. Sand recognized the Allamakee County Attorney’s Office as a participant in the PIE Program, and he said that cost saving ideas from local and county governments are shared through this program throughout the state.

Sand discussed the statewide works program which he indicated allows employees to work remotely from small town and rural areas while not confining State jobs to the Des Moines area or other urban areas. Sand also briefly discussed a variety of other topics including Medicaid privatization, the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) and the need to increase penalties for fraud and embezzlement involving government funds.