DES MOINES, Iowa — On Thursday Auditor of State Rob Sand released a report alleging that a former program director at Children and Families of Iowa (CFI) embezzled over $400,000.

According to the report, the investigation centered around financial transactions processed from April 2015 to May 2022 while Jodi Spargur-Tate was the CFI WIOA Title I Program Director. A worker discovered the questionable payments while Spargur-Tate was on a vacation, Sand said.

The investigation uncovered $426,837.11 of improper disbursements and $9,342.81 of unsupported disbursements, for a total of $436,179.92 in disbursements from multiple funding sources including WIOA Funds.

Sand reported that the disbursements went to some of Spargur-Tate’s family members and included over $77,000 in payments for daycare services that weren’t rendered, over $10,000 in cellphone payments, and over $8,000 in rental payments.

The report has been turned over to the Polk County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

To read the full report visit the State Auditor’s website.

In response to the Auditor’s report and comment about the Iowa Workforce Development needing to improve their monitoring process, the IWD released the following statement:

Iowa Workforce Development reported potentially fraudulent activity to the Office of the State Auditor on June 7, 2022, shortly after being notified by the local workforce board. In addition, the US Department of Labor and the US Office of Inspector General were also notified by IWD. Since that time, IWD has worked diligently with the auditor’s office to fully discover the extent and nature of the fraudulent activity.

Auditor Sand stated that his office has advised IWD to improve their monitoring process in five of six of their most recent reports and no action was taken. It is simply inaccurate to say that IWD took no action to improve its monitoring and oversight responsibilities. IWD implemented enhanced sub-recipient monitoring beginning in January 2020. IWD received only one other additional comment about sub-recipient monitoring from the auditor prior to June 2022. The remaining four audit reports referenced by Auditor Sand were issued to IWD after June 2022, including three reports that were issued in late 2024, more than two years after the incident had already been reported.

IWD remains committed to continuing its concerted efforts to identify and prevent fraud as part of its mission to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Iowa Workforce Development

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