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Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Accounting advice for Iowa town after officials’ misconduct

Accounting advice for Iowa town after officials’ misconduct

Officials are offering advice to Armstrong, the small northwest Iowa town where five officials were accused of bilking Armstrong out of thousands of dollars and destroying financial records.

State Auditor Rob Sand has issued a report citing 22 accounting issues in the City of Armstrong during the 12-month budgeting year that ended June 30, 2023.

“When you’re coming from a situation where you have had a number of people commit crimes while active in city government and leave city government, you’re going to have quite a period of clean up,” Sand said during a Radio Iowa interview. “We’re here identifying the issues that are presently there for new leadership and hopefully they will take of these issues in the process of cleaning up city government.”

In 2017, a special investigation of Armstrong City accounts found at least $100,000 worth of deposits and payments had been mishandled. The town’s former mayor, three former city clerks, and its former police chief were all accused of wrongdoing and have pleaded guilty to misconduct, but none were sent to prison. The latest audit of Armstrong from the state auditor’s office raised concerns about how checks written to the City of Armstrong and checks written on city accounts are handled.

“Two of the three people who can sign the checks aren’t elected officials. They are not city employees,” Sand said. “You’ve got to ensure you have direct accountability for those people so you know the checks going out are people who are involved in doing that business.”

One of the city’s debit cards was opened in the name of a city employee, using that employee’s Social Security number. “It’s important that you have prior approval for purchases, which in this case Armstrong wasn’t doing,” Sand said. “You want to make sure that before you go out and use it that it’s OK to buy that.”

The state auditor’s office reviewed three sets of minutes from Armstrong City Council meetings that did not list city receipts or bills the city owed.

“What we need to have are minutes that reflect the reality of finances as well as the reality of the proceedings of what’s going on in town,” Sand said, “so that people who aren’t at a meeting can still review what’s going on and have a good understanding of it.”

Last month, a former mayor of Armstrong was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to tampering with records and misconduct in office.

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