State Auditor Rob Sand issued a report Thursday that says more than $400,000 in public money was improperly spent through a program run by Iowa Workforce Development.
At a news conference, Sand characterized the matter as a case of “embezzlement” that involves programs funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and administered by Iowa Workforce Development.
The federal money was routed from the state agency to the Central Iowa Workforce Development Board, and then to the “subrecipient” of the funds, Children and Families of Iowa, Sand said.
At Children and Families of Iowa, administrator Jodi Spargur-Tate headed a program tasked with distributing the funds to Iowans, Sand said. “This is a program that’s oriented around making sure that people have job-training opportunities and pathways to success and prosperity,” he said.
The auditor’s investigation identified $436,180 worth of improper and unsupported disbursements, including $324,586 in payments that were routed to Spargur-Tate herself, according to the report.
“And then there was about another $100,000 that was diverted to Spargur-Tate’s family members for things like rent, utilities and cellphone service,” Sand said.
Sand said the manner in which the alleged fraud was uncovered was a “classic story” typical of such cases. A worker who was filling in for Spargur-Tate during her 2022 vacation noticed one recipient of the funds didn’t have a car but was claiming expenses for auto repairs.
Children and Families of Iowa investigated further and then alerted Workforce Development to the potential issues. The state department then requested a special investigation by the auditor.
Sand said the case underscores the importance of public agencies following through on recommendations from the state auditor on how to avoid fraud and protect public money.
“For five of the last six years,” he said, “our office’s audits of Iowa Workforce Development told them they needed to be doing more subrecipient monitoring. … We have been asking (the department) for six years to go back and look more closely at the people who are getting these funds to make sure that there was a sense of oversight there and that IWD was paying attention to how these funds were spent.”
Sand said the department did make some progress on that issue, and noted the agency had its “world turned around” during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the demands placed on the state’s unemployment system.
Some of the improper payments made by Spargur-Tate at Children and Families of Iowa are alleged to include $77,730 that was routed to a relative, Dee Dee Millard, for day care services that were never rendered; $10,014 that went to U.S. Cellular; and $6,167 in payments to MidAmerican Energy.
Sand has again recommended that Workforce Development officials implement additional safeguards, including the monitoring of subrecipients’ use of public money, to strengthen internal controls.
In addition, Sand has recommended that Children and Families of Iowa implement procedures to ensure their internal controls are strengthened, including basic segregation of duties surrounding the disbursement of money.
As of Thursday, no criminal charges had been filed in the case, but Sand said his office’s findings have been shared with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Polk County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
www.thegazette.com
At a news conference, Sand characterized the matter as a case of “embezzlement” that involves programs funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and administered by Iowa Workforce Development.
The federal money was routed from the state agency to the Central Iowa Workforce Development Board, and then to the “subrecipient” of the funds, Children and Families of Iowa, Sand said.
At Children and Families of Iowa, administrator Jodi Spargur-Tate headed a program tasked with distributing the funds to Iowans, Sand said. “This is a program that’s oriented around making sure that people have job-training opportunities and pathways to success and prosperity,” he said.
The auditor’s investigation identified $436,180 worth of improper and unsupported disbursements, including $324,586 in payments that were routed to Spargur-Tate herself, according to the report.
“And then there was about another $100,000 that was diverted to Spargur-Tate’s family members for things like rent, utilities and cellphone service,” Sand said.
Sand said the manner in which the alleged fraud was uncovered was a “classic story” typical of such cases. A worker who was filling in for Spargur-Tate during her 2022 vacation noticed one recipient of the funds didn’t have a car but was claiming expenses for auto repairs.
Children and Families of Iowa investigated further and then alerted Workforce Development to the potential issues. The state department then requested a special investigation by the auditor.
Sand said the case underscores the importance of public agencies following through on recommendations from the state auditor on how to avoid fraud and protect public money.
“For five of the last six years,” he said, “our office’s audits of Iowa Workforce Development told them they needed to be doing more subrecipient monitoring. … We have been asking (the department) for six years to go back and look more closely at the people who are getting these funds to make sure that there was a sense of oversight there and that IWD was paying attention to how these funds were spent.”
Sand said the department did make some progress on that issue, and noted the agency had its “world turned around” during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the demands placed on the state’s unemployment system.
Some of the improper payments made by Spargur-Tate at Children and Families of Iowa are alleged to include $77,730 that was routed to a relative, Dee Dee Millard, for day care services that were never rendered; $10,014 that went to U.S. Cellular; and $6,167 in payments to MidAmerican Energy.
Sand has again recommended that Workforce Development officials implement additional safeguards, including the monitoring of subrecipients’ use of public money, to strengthen internal controls.
In addition, Sand has recommended that Children and Families of Iowa implement procedures to ensure their internal controls are strengthened, including basic segregation of duties surrounding the disbursement of money.
As of Thursday, no criminal charges had been filed in the case, but Sand said his office’s findings have been shared with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Polk County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Iowa auditor: Over $400K misspent in state-run program
The auditor’s investigation identified $436,180 worth of improper and unsupported disbursements, including $324,586 in payments that were routed to an administrator personally.
www.thegazette.com
