Des Moines Register

by Kathie Obradovich

It’s tempting to treat state audits like political soccer balls these days, since Auditor David Vaudt has so publicly teamed up with Republican Terry Branstad’s gubernatorial campaign.

That may be one reason a recent audit of the Department of Natural Resources generated so much heat last week. The audit found 16 state laws that the DNR was not following, sparking outrage and dismay from some environmental advocates and lawmakers. None of the deficiencies is likely to endanger public safety, but they included attention-getting issues like infectious waste treatment facilities.

Gov. Chet Culver called the news coverage “overstated and overblown,” and suggested there may have been some politics behind the timing of the audit. Vaudt responded with disappointment that Culver was trying to play politics.

Vaudt’s office has been steadily releasing annual audits for state agencies and other entities for weeks, so the charge of political timing doesn’t really hold water. The audits are getting more news media scrutiny in recent weeks, since the disclosure of questionable spending at the Alcoholic Beverages Division.

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Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil –

Gov. Chet Culver has ordered an end to payments for a consultant who was hired to help the state trim costs after an auditor’s report showed the consultant was paid more than the state saved. Culver also ordered that oversight of the contract be moved from the Department of Administrative Services to the Department of Management.

The state hired A.T. Kearney Inc., a Chicago-based management-consulting firm, in 2005 to review its spending approaches and identify how money could be saved. According to the state audit, which was released last week, the estimated savings for fiscal year 2007 totaled nearly $2.9 million. The state paid A.T. Kearney more than $3.4 million.

The savings in 2007 compared to a projected first-year savings of about $10.5 million.

“When it started, the payment to A.T. Kearney was about 35 percent of projected savings, but it ended up being about 120 percent of savings,” said Auditor David Vaudt, who conducted the audit at the request of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services.

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