State Auditor Rob Sand spent almost the entire noon hour in a downtown Newton park yesterday, talking about his office and some of its programs and services. Just under two dozen people were at the Comer Park Gazebo to ask Sand questions and listen to him speak about various topics, including Senate File 478. The bill prevents the State Auditor from accessing various records including individual income tax returns, law enforcement agencies’ criminal files, hospital records, and student records. Sand does not know of any other similar regulation in any other state. He believes it passed the Republican controlled legislature because he found a “record number of misspent dollars” during his first term in 2019.

“How do you deter people from waste fraud and abuse if they know the Auditor can’t look at the document? The only thing that happens when you give people that ability to hide that kind of information is they are going to take you up on that offer. That’s it. That’s the only outcome that happens.”

The State Auditor also talked about the Public Innovation and Efficiencies Program called PIE. It encourages government agencies to find ways to save money, and then share those ideas through the State Auditor’s Office. 

“We can lift up good public servants and say we have a lot of people here doing a great job. If you have any ideas in Newton or Jasper County that have saved money send them to us and we add it to the program and everyone across the state can learn about your idea and hopefully copy it”.

According to Sand, the nearly four year old program has had over 500 participating entities from all 99 counties two years in a row and been copied in two other states.