DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand released a special investigation report Tuesday, April 26 that revealed an over-$16,000 discrepancy in financial transactions processed by former University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Administrative Services Specialist Anna Hernandez.
According to the audit report, the investigation showed the UIHC's Care Coordination Division had about $16,115 in gift cards unaccounted for, nearly $155 of improper disbursements, about $378 of unsupported disbursements, and $500 of undeposited collections between August 2012 and December 2020.
Among the missing gift cards, 10 cards totaling almost $750 were sent to a Paypal account belonging to Ray Springer, a friend of Hernandez according to staff interviewed at UIHC.
When asked about the charges, Hernandez said she regularly worked from home on her personal laptop, which wasn't secured, and she alleged her ex-boyfriend got into systems and accounts he should not have and made the payments improperly to Springer, according to the report.
Division officials, according to the report, argued physical access to gift cards was needed to purchase them and that Hernandez was not authorized to work from home and wasn't granted remote access to the division's systems.
In the report, Sand said it was not possible to determine if additional funds were unaccounted for or improperly dispersed because of inadequate documentation and suggested the university implement procedures to strengthen internal controls and prevent future discrepancies.
"A lot of these gift cards went missing," Sand said. "But we were able to say for those ones related to that email, that it was spent inappropriately."
Some of Sand's recommended changes include segregating staff duties, having an independent company perform inventory counts of gift cards, and ensuring proper documentation is maintained for all funds that are handled by the division.
UIHC later released a statement regarding the audit.
"The University of Iowa requested the audit by the Office of Auditor of State, after discovering the initial discrepancies. The University of Iowa takes seriously its fiduciary responsibility to spend taxpayer, research, and charitable dollars wisely and has several procedures in place to ensure this happens. The individual who was the focus of the audit resigned from the University of Iowa in November of 2020. We thank the auditor for their thorough work."