A bill introduced in the Iowa Senate would let state agencies hire private CPA firms to audit government spending rather than have the state auditor’s office do it.
Senator Mike Bousselot, a Republican from Ankeny, said private CPAs can audit state agencies in Illinois. “It is a flexibility that exists today for our cities. In fact the City of Des Moines, the largest city in our state, hires not the state auditor’s office — even though they could, but they hire a private CPA firm,” Bousselot said, “as well as the vast majority of school districts in our state.”
Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, said this is the second year in a row Republicans have introduced a bill to limit the authority of State Auditor Rob Sand. “You know we can all act like there’s no elephant in the room, but there is. We have one Democrat elected statewide — one — and he’s the auditor, unfortunately for you because he’s the guy that can look in to see what the rest of yous are doing,” Bisignano said during a Senate subcommittee meeting this morning. “That seems to be a problem here now.”
John McCormally, chief of staff in the state auditor’s office, told lawmakers it would likely cost the state $5 million more to have private CPAs do the work that’s being done now by the state auditor’s office. “Voters make a choice for state auditor every four years and the author of this bill doesn’t like who they chose,” McCormally said, “so he wants to use more taxpayer money to hire somebody else.”
Marlys Gaston recently retired as the chief deputy in the financial audit division in the state auditor’s office and she worked for two Republican state auditors as well as Democrat Rob Sand. She raised concerns about the bill. “Allowing the departments to choose their independent uaditor would, I think, eliminate economy and efficiency to begin with,” Gaston told senators. “…You’re increasing costs exponentially.”
According to a lobbyist for the Iowa Society of Certified Public Accountants, fewer CPA firms are willing to audit government agencies. Bousselot said letting state agencies hire private CPA firms for audits might address the shortage of CPAs in Iowa and encourage more to enter the profession. “The flexibility to hire ethical but private CPAs that are answerable to the same standards as a public CPA,…is something that we could leverage here at the state to get more CPAs and greater expertise in delivering audits for state government,” Bousselot said.
The bill has cleared a Senate subcommittee and is likely to be approved by a Senate committee later today.