A recent report was released by the Iowa Auditor’s Office pertaining to a community in Dallas County about some unusual financial issues.
Iowa Auditor Rob Sand opened a special investigation into the City of Linden from the time period of December 7th, 2020 to February 28th, 2023 after city officials requested that he review transactions made by former City Clerk, Mandi Hutchins. According to Sand’s findings, he discovered that there were approximately $10,670 of undeposited utility billings, about $3,400 of improper disbursements, and $3,500 of unsupported disbursements.
Sand tells Raccoon Valley Radio that in order to do a special audit, his office must receive a request from an elected official, an employee, or a petition that has an undisclosed number of signatures, and that determining factors normally relate to fraud. One of Sand’s recommendations to help prevent problems that one person handling all of those financial transactions is to segregate those duties. Sand brings up that he recently spoke with the Superintendent of the Hartwick-Ladora-Victor School District, who created a “segregation of duties” team to put multiple eyes on different areas. He reveals the benefits this could have on a smaller community like Linden…