–The State Auditor’s Office found no items of non-compliance in a recently completed re-audit of Kossuth County and the Board of Supervisors from the fiscal year 2020. The State Auditor’s Office received a citizen’s petition to reexamine the county and board’s function as a drainage district trustee.
The petition noted specific concerns, including business transactions between the county and county officials, authorizing drainage district repairs and improvements, policies and procedures over drainage district disbursements, assessments and record keeping, the county’s bidding process for drainage district repair and improvement projects, and drainage district expenses assessed to landowners while also being reimbursed by FEMA.
State Auditor Rob Sand tells KLGA News his office receives this type of request fairly frequently.
The petition raised concerns that drainage work was being awarded to Laubenthal Excavating because of a personal relationship between Supervisor Kyle Stecker and the Laubenthal family. The auditor’s report found no-such relationship that would cause a conflict of interest, and that the projects in question were properly bid and awarded to the company.
The petition also raised concerns over authorizing of drainage district repairs and improvements, but the auditor’s report found each of the repair/improvement projects observed complied with Iowa code. Sand says county officials aided his office’s investigation at every turn.
While each investigation is unique, Sand says it can take some time to complete audits such as this one.
Just this week Sand’s office released a report detailing over $75,000 worth of misspent money in Tama County, and he says giving out good news is a refreshing change of pace.
The petition had also asked the Auditor’s office to look at the quality of work that had been done as a part of these repair projects, but those concerns were not addressed in the re-audit. The report states that the quality of work performed by contractors on those projects is outside the scope of a financial statement audit or a typical compliance audit. You can see the full report online by clicking on the link below:
www.auditor.iowa.gov/reports/file/77764.pdf
