(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, is calling on the Republican leader of the Iowa House to apologize for accusing Sand and his staff of withholding information about funding issues in the Iowa court system. State Auditor Rob Sand says House Speaker Pat Grassley attacked his staff for partisan political reasons or, Sand says, “ignorance” about when a state fiscal year begins. Letter to Speaker Grassley 10.21.24

Sand’s office was notified during Fiscal Year 2023 about computer programming errors that were incorrectly distributing millions in court fines and fees. Last week, Grassley blasted Sand for failing to notify legislators or note the errors in audits. Sand says his staff hasn’t finished its audit of the state court system for the fiscal year in question — and state law prohibits his office from releasing allegations of non-compliance like the tip his office got about the court system errors.

A spokesperson for Speaker Grassley was not immediately available for comment. Sand is calling on the legislature to repeal the law that makes it illegal for his office to review computer programming infrastructure — like the coding issue that sent 26-and-a-half MILLION dollars worth of court fines and fees to the wrong accounts.