Iowa State College Democrats and the Committee on Lectures partnered to welcome the State Auditor of Iowa, Rob Sand, for a talk on the importance of government accountability and ethical public service.

Sand started the lecture by sharing his background, recounting his early years growing up in Decorah, Iowa. His father instilled in him the principle of accountability.

Sand shared a story in which he asked, “Dad, why do we lock up? He says, well, we don’t want to tempt people,” referring to the idea that strong systems and oversight deter wrongdoing.

This philosophy led Sand to law school, where he became particularly interested in prosecuting white-collar crime.

“Crimes against gratitude,” as Sand put it, refers to financial crimes committed by those in positions of privilege.

“You’re taking a place that’s supposed to be sacred, that’s supposed to be for good, and you’re exploiting it for your own ends,” Sand said, recalling the Bible verse that stuck out to him the most as a child, of Jesus flipping over the money changers’ table.

Sand described his prosecution of the infamous Iowa Film Office tax credit scandal and the largest lottery-rigging scheme in American history. 

“It was an insane invitation to fraud,” he said, discussing the loose regulations that allowed corruption to flourish in the film tax credit program.

Sand, who has been elected as State Auditor for six years, is currently the only Democrat statewide officeholder in Iowa.

Despite being a political minority in Iowa, Sand emphasized his nonpartisan approach to auditing and the importance of preventing financial misconduct regardless of political affiliation. He stated that his senior leadership team includes Democrats, Republicans and independents.

“There isn’t a Democratic or Republican way to audit. There’s just an audit,” Sand said.

One of Sand’s major concerns is the recently passed Iowa law, SF 478, which restricts the auditor’s ability to access certain government records.

“This is not how we make sure that the government protects your tax dollars,” Sand warned. “The message is very clear to everyone who handles your tax dollars in the state of Iowa: if you screw something up, you don’t necessarily have to tell anybody about it.”

Beyond uncovering fraud, Sand is passionate about improving government efficiency. He launched the Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) Program, encouraging local governments to find creative ways to save money.

“When an entity does a really good job of saving tax dollars, I bring them pie,” Sand said.

The program has highlighted money-saving initiatives, such as using swamp coolers to reduce electricity costs and capturing landfill methane for resale.

“Methane is created as our garbage decomposes. In Muscatine, in Linn County and Sioux City, they have some system in place to actually capture that methane, and then they can sell it, because that’s natural gas, right? They’re making money where, literally everywhere else, we’re lighting it on fire,” Sand said.

Sand also discussed the integration of artificial intelligence into auditing practices, a development he finds exciting.

“We now have two different programs that are going to trim a substantial number of hours off of our work,” Sand said, emphasizing that AI would improve efficiency rather than replace jobs. “What I would like to do is get our office to where people only have to work 40 to 50 hours a week instead of 80.”

When asked how he stays motivated, Sand stated, “I don’t. But I keep going because I believe in what I’m doing. The point of life is to push the odds a little bit in the direction of the better thing happening.”

Sand also encouraged whistleblowers to report fraud to his office, assuring them of confidentiality and protection.

“We would rather get sued and go to court than give up the identity of whistleblowers,” Sand said.

In the closing moments of his lecture, Sand voiced his frustration with the two-party system and advocated for ranked choice and approval voting.

“There is no reason that the Democratic and Republican parties should be our only choices. We need a system that rewards good behavior and holds people accountable,” Sand said.

“We can have elected officials who are actually held accountable and are responsive to voters, because they will actually have every single person’s opinion equally weighed in their fate,” Sand said. “And they can’t just rely on wearing the right colored shirt or the right colored jersey to get through the election.”