(Radio Iowa) – The Republican running for state auditor says he blew the whistle on profiteering in a state agency, but State Auditor Rob Sand’s office hasn’t launched an investigation. Todd Halbur, the former chief financial officer of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, sued the State of Iowa after he was fired in 2018. “Unfortunately I became a whistleblower for them overcharging you on all of your liquor purchases,” Halbur says, “so at that point, we need to take action because it’s an illegal and unbusinesslike activity that the auditor’s office has a role on.”

Shortly after Halbur sued the Reynolds Administration in 2019, a spokesman for the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division called Halbur’s allegations untrue. Private companies manage the sale of beer and wine to Iowa retailers, restaurants and bars, but the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division is the wholesaler for liquor. “We need to get the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division out of the booze business for the State of Iowa and the taxpayers,” Halbur says.

Halbur made his comments on the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair. Sand’s campaign manager says Halbir had a record of mishandling taxpayers’ money, but misstating asset values by hundreds of thousands of dollars three years in a row at the Alcoholic Beverages Division. If Halbur believes the state should have ended its wholesale liquor system, Sand’s campaign manager says Halbur should have been lobbying the Republican governor and Republicans who’ve been in charge of the legislature.