The Iowa House Oversight Committee questioned state court officials Wednesday about IT errors that sent more than $27 million of court debt money to the wrong government funds. Lawmakers asked why officials waited three years to tell the Legislature about the mistake.
State Court Administrator Bob Gast says the judicial branch spent that time studying the problem. He says in hindsight, they should have told lawmakers sooner.
“At the outset, it seemed premature to notify the Legislature about issues about which we did not know the scope or have a resolution. But again, we did not try to hide it.”
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, says it looks like the court system tried to hide the problem. He asked for documents to prove money wasn’t stolen.
Court officials say they have fixed the problem and they will provide documentation. However, they say it’s up to the Legislature to restore previously misallocated funds and to simplify the court debt system.