(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Democrats slam bill allowing agencies to bypass state auditor’s office [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02-14
Staff with the state auditor’s office said Wednesday that a Senate bill allowing state departments to employ an outside accountant to conduct required audits would result in higher costs and less accountability in state government.
Senate File 2311 would allow state agencies to employ a certified public accountant (CPA) to conduct their annual audit instead of the auditor’s office, with the provision that the results be submitted to the auditor of state.
Audits performed by CPAs would be paid for using the funds that would have been paid to the auditor’s office if it conducted the audit, or using funds approved by the Executive Council of Iowa.
Sen. Mike Bousselot, the bill’s author, said in a subcommittee meeting Wednesday that the measure will give state government more flexibility in conducting audits as the state faces a shortage of CPAs. Local governments and school districts are already able to go to private CPAs to conduct audits under state law, and Bousselot said the proposal was a way to bring “efficiency and effectiveness to state governments as well.”
John McCormally, chief of staff of the auditor’s office, said Bousselot’s comparison of the measure to local government audits was “disingenuous.” He said the bill could lead to departments hiring CPAs outside the auditor’s office in an effort to avoid accountability.
The bill could prevent the auditor’s office from reauditing departments or from reviewing the audits private accountants submit, McCormally said, though Bousselot disagreed.
McCormally also said claiming the bill was “revenue neutral” is incorrect. Having private CPAs do the work currently performed by the auditor’s office could cost the state up to $5 million, he said.
McCormally also said there was a partisan motivation behind the bill. Auditor Rob Sand is the only Democrat to hold a statewide elected office in Iowa.
“Voters make a choice for state auditor every four years,” McCormally said. “And the author of this bill doesn’t like who they chose, so he wants to use more taxpayer money to hire somebody else.”
Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, said the bill was “neutering” the auditor’s office, linking it to the legislation brought forward by Senate Republicans in the 2023 legislative session restricting the office’s access to certain information while performing investigations. He called the legislation “bad business” and politically motivated.
“We have one Democrat elected statewide — one — and he’s the auditor, unfortunately for you,” Bisignano said. “Because he’s the guy that could look in to see what the rest of yous are doing. That seems to be a problem here now.”
Bousselot said “only in politics could hiring nonpartisan auditors be considered partisan.” He and Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, voted to advance the bill in subcommittee.
The bill advanced along party lines in the Senate State Government Committee.
“At its core, this is not about politics,” Bousselot said. “It’s about good government and finding innovative and efficient ways to effectively address the challenges we are facing with less accountants and more financial reporting and more transparency for Iowans.”
Sand plans to hold a news conference about the legislation Thursday, as well as talk about the impacts of last year’s legislation. He said in a release that a state agency has refused to produce records for an audit.
“This is the first agency to hide records from the Auditor’s Office since the Governor signed the most pro-corruption bill in the Iowa’s history that made it legal to do so, but it won’t be the last,” Sand said in a statement. “And now, for the second year in a row, Republican insiders have proposed another bill that will overrule election results, gut government accountability, and cost taxpayers millions.”
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