The state auditor is advising Iowa’s governor to return millions in federal pandemic relief money spent on new computer software. Last year, the State of Iowa signed a contract to upgrade some of the state’s aging computer systems. This year, Governor Kim Reynolds authorized spending 21-million dollars of federal coronavirus relief money on the software, arguing state employees would use it to schedule time off if they got Covid or had to care for a family member who got the virus. State Auditor Rob Sand says the CARES Act money must be used on expenses directly related to the pandemic.

Sand is also advising that Reynolds her decision to use federal pandemic relief money to pay the salaries of some staff in the governor’s office is questionable.

Sand says the inspector general in the U.S. Treasury Department has come to the same conclusion. Iowa received one-point-two billion dollars from the federal government for pandemic expenses, but the money must be spent and accounted for in this calendar year.