State Auditor Rob Sand created the Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) program in 2019 to provide advice and recognize government entities for their efforts to save taxpayer money through cost-cutting measures provided by the Auditor’s Office. This program has also recently been adopted by the State Auditor of Mississippi after the program’s success in Iowa.
Sand spoke with KCII, who is currently doing a 100 Townhall Tour across Iowa, about what the public can do to contribute to the PIE program’s success. “Another thing we do is collect PIE recipes. If someone has an idea to save taxpayer money, we want people to tell us so that we can add it to the list and distribute it across the state within a matter of a year. The more ideas we get for the PIE program, the more money we are going to be able to save for next year.”
Auditor Sand also provided an insight into how much possible money his department has saved taxpayers since he was elected in 2019. “We have set a record in terms of uncovering misspent money for a first-term State Auditor, and that’s been $25 million since I’ve been elected. That does not include the money we are saving through the PIE program, which is harder to measure. But some big-ticket items could save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
A link to provide suggestions for the PIE program can be found at the bottom of the article.