The Iowa Department of Administrative Services presents itself as “an organization of excellence, providing services and support to meet our stakeholder agencies’ needs and ever mindful of good stewardship in resource utilization.” Among other responsibilities, DAS “handles personnel matters for all of state government.”

Yet the agency’s former top attorney Ryan Lamb didn’t comply with various personnel rules during the nearly three years he worked for state government, State Auditor Mary Mosiman revealed yesterday in a detailed report (pdf). The headline news from the audit: Lamb was “overpaid” and “unqualified” for his job. Ryan Foley reported for the Associated Press,

A key lawyer in Gov. Terry Branstad’s administration wasn’t qualified for his position and was paid $22,600 that he shouldn’t have received while on military leave, according to a report released Thursday.

Department of Administrative Services chief legal counsel Ryan Lamb also failed to record vacation days and was promoted and given major raises even though he didn’t have a resume on file […].

That sounds bad. But wait! There’s more.

You can read the full report from the Office of State Auditor here (pdf). The first two pages of that document are a press release summarizing the key findings. Page 3 is a cover letter from State Auditor Mary Mosiman and Chief Deputy State Auditor Warren Jenkins to DAS Director Janet Phipps. Her predecessor Mike Carroll held that position during the period auditors examined (April 2011 to February 2014). Page 4 provides background information on Lamb’s work for DAS and the whistleblower’s letter that alleged, “Mr. Lamb’s military leave was longer than 30 calendar days and the decision to provide him with his regular salary [from DAS] beyond 30 calendar days violated state of Iowa policy,” and that Lamb was allowed to be absent from work without taking vacation days.

The auditors then provided detailed findings on policy violations during Lamb’s tenure at DAS (pp. 5 through 12), “recommended control procedures” to prevent such errors in the future (pp. 12 and 13), named the staff who conducted the audit (p. 14) and finally, enclosed the whistleblower’s letter (p. 16) and an affidavit from Lamb’s former roommate during his military leave (p. 17).

Auditors identified at least thirteen rules Lamb and/or his supervisors failed to follow during his time at DAS. I’ll list them all in a moment, but one point needs to be emphasized first.

This audit examined only a small part of Lamb’s work for DAS.

The audit did not touch on the huge scandal the Des Moines Register first reported in March 2014, involving “secret settlement deals” with former state employees, who were paid extra for not disclosing details about their (possibly politically-motivated) firings. Lamb negotiated those deals during his time at DAS. An earlier audit revealed that the state “paid nearly $700,000 to cover confidential settlements” with 42 former employees. Governor Terry Branstad fired Mike Carroll as DAS director in April 2014, after documents revealed Carroll had given false testimony about the deals to a legislative oversight committee.

In addition, Mosiman and Jenkins noted in their letter to DAS Director Phipps,

The procedures described above do not constitute an audit of financial statements conducted in accordance with U. S. generally accepted auditing standards. Had we performed additional procedures, or had we performed an audit of financial statements of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you.

So we may never know the true scale of Lamb’s rule-breaking while he was the top attorney for the agency that has a mission to provide “unified, comprehensive, value driven administrative services” and a vision to “enhance overall operational and cost efficiency by providing progressive and measurable business value.”

With apologies for burying the lede, here are thirteen violations uncovered in the latest audit.

• Lamb received “$22,635.55 of improper disbursements.”

A table on page 5 breaks that total down: $13,098.28 in “Excess pay and benefits during military leave” and $9,537.27 in “Excess vacation payout.” Below that table, auditors quoted relevant passages from Iowa Administrative Code and a DAS memo from 2013, which indicate that “the maximum paid military leave employees are eligible for each calendar year is 30 work days.”

Mr. Lamb was on military leave from June 17, 2013 to October 7, 2013, which includes 78 scheduled work days and 2 holidays.

Using information from the State’s payroll system, we determined Mr. Lamb received his regular salary for the entire period he was on military leave, which exceeds the 30 paid work days allowed. After 30 days of paid military leave, employees are allowed to use accrued vacation in order to continue receiving their salary. However, if they choose not to use their accrued vacation or they exhaust all of their accrued vacation, their remaining time on military leave is to be unpaid. Vacation is not to accrue while on military leave. However, information from the State’s payroll system shows Mr. Lamb continued to accrue vacation during the time he was on military leave.

A more detailed chart on page 6 “compares the gross pay and benefits recorded in the State’s payroll system for Mr. Lamb during his military leave to the amounts which should have been recorded and paid in accordance with the State’s military leave policy.”

• Lamb was not qualified for the top attorney’s position at DAS.

Lamb started work at DAS in April 2011 at the level of a Public Service Executive 4 (PSE4). Carroll reclassified him as an Attorney 3 a little less than nine months later. The audit noted (p.10) that because a document related to Lamb’s initial position was missing from his file,

we are unable to determine which of his duties changed when his position was reclassified. However, the job description for an Attorney 3 includes the following education, experience, and special requirements:

• Graduation from an accredited law school and the equivalent of 5 years of full- time successful and responsible experience in the practice of law, or

• The equivalent of 3 years of full-time experience in the practice of law in the employing agency shall be considered as qualifying experience.

Because Mr. Lamb became licensed in Iowa in April 2008 and was hired as DAS’ Chief Legal Counsel in April 2011, he did not meet either requirement when he was reclassified to the Attorney 3 position in December 2011.

On a related note,

• Lamb had no resume on file with the DAS.

Carroll approved another reclassification for Lamb in March 2012, making him a Public Service Executive 5. Auditors determined that Lamb’s “duties were essentially the same” for the new position, but the Position Description Questionnaire for that job stated, “In addition to Attorney 3 duties, the position is now responsible for labor relations on a statewide basis.”

According to DAS officials we spoke with, Mr. Lamb became responsible for supervising the labor relations team. The PDQ also identified a knowledge of labor relations management was as an essential function of the position.

The minimum qualification requirements for PSE positions require various years of experience of full-time management-level work within certain disciplines, depending on the candidate’s educational background. Because Mr. Lamb’s personnel file did not contain a résumé, we are unable to determine if he met the minimum educational and/or work experience requirements for the PSE positions he held.

Maybe an attorney with more experience in labor relations than Lamb would not have negotiated so many confidential settlements providing extra payouts in exchange for the silence of former state employees. But I digress.

• Lamb did not officially record his military leave.

State employees are required to “provide proper notice [of military leave] to the personnel assistant in your department,” but Lamb’s personnel file at DAS did not contain any such notice (p. 5). In addition, “no military leave or vacation was recorded on any of Mr. Lamb’s timesheets during the period of his military leave.” (p. 6)

Even worse,

• Lamb did not record any vacation time during nearly three years at DAS.

Auditors found (p.7),

We reviewed Mr. Lamb’s timesheets during his term of employment and identified no vacation hours used were recorded during the 34 months he was employed by DAS, which appears unusual. As a result, Mr. Lamb received the maximum vacation payout possible for his term of service, which was for 192 hours of accrued vacation.

In accordance with section 6.10 of the State of Iowa Managers and Supervisors Manual, employees who separate from State employment must be paid their accrued vacation in a lump sum with their last paycheck. As stated previously, Mr. Lamb resigned from his position at DAS with his last day being February 7, 2014. At the time of his resignation, his biweekly salary was $4,805.60, or $60.07 per hour, which was used to calculate his vacation payout. Therefore, Mr. Lamb received a vacation payout totaling $11,533.44.

As previously stated, had DAS and Mr. Lamb complied with the State’s military leave policy, Mr. Lamb would not have accrued any vacation during his paid military leave. However, he would have been able to start earning vacation again if he had used vacation as paid time off after his 30 days of paid military leave was exhausted. If Mr. Lamb’s time had been recorded in accordance with the State’s military leave policy, he would have had no accrued vacation hours at the time of his return to work on October 7, 2013.

Lamb’s period of military service was not the only time he was absent from work at DAS, as we’ll see below.

• Lamb did not log hours he worked for DAS while on military leave.

DAS officials told auditors, “Mr. Lamb was expected to work for DAS during his military leave under a work arrangement between Mr. Lamb and former DAS Director Mike Carroll. According to Mr. Lamb, he was expected to be the acting Chief Legal Counsel for DAS while at military training.” (p.6) He continued to receive pay for full-time work, but the auditors did not find evidence supporting the notion that he was putting in full-time hours for DAS while on leave. From page 8:

According to DAS officials we spoke with, Mr. Lamb performed work for DAS while on military leave. These DAS officials were not sure how many hours were worked or why Mr. Lamb’s hours were not tracked. DAS officials also stated a work agreement had been verbally established between Mr. Lamb and former DAS Director Mike Carroll. According to Mr. Lamb, he did not keep track or log hours worked, but he kept Paul Carlson and Terra Granger, the Director’s secretary, informed of what he was working on. He worked a lot with the AFSCME President on various issues while on military leave. According to Mr. Lamb, he had training early in the morning, checked DAS e-mail, attended class, then worked for DAS in the evenings and on weekends. While in Georgia, he worked weekends in a hotel and evenings at a café. While in Virginia, he stayed in a dorm room on campus at the University of Virginia and worked from his room. We reviewed a file obtained from Paul Carlson which contained e-mails and phone conversations which occurred during Mr. Lamb’s military leave. From the documents in the file, we determined Mr. Lamb was doing some work while on military leave. […]

Mr. Lamb did not record or track the hours he worked for DAS while on military leave. Because there is no documentation supporting the amount of time Mr. Lamb spent working for DAS, we are unable to determine the public benefit served by DAS paying Mr. Lamb his full DAS salary for the entire time he was on military leave. It is not reasonable to assume Mr. Lamb was able to work full time for DAS while performing his required military duties.

• Lamb did not enter into an agreement required for state workers seeking to do their job from a remote location.

More findings from page 8 of the audit:

The State provides its employees with an opportunity to participate in a telework arrangement when practical and consistent with a department’s mission. Section 18.05 of the Managers and Supervisors Manual describes the telework program, which allows employees to work at a location away from the employee’s regular work site. A telework agreement must be completed and executed by the manager and employee prior to any telework commencing. Mr. Lamb and DAS did not enter into a telework agreement and we do not believe it would be appropriate to enter into a full-time telework agreement because military training would be a full-time obligation.

• Lamb discussed work matters with at least one person outside DAS.

Lamb “offered to have a colleague provide an affidavit regarding the time he spent working for DAS while on military leave”; you can read the affidavit on the last page of the auditor’s report. Lamb’s former roommate at Fort Benning in Georgia, Ryan MacGillis, attested to Lamb “performing work during our training, observed him keeping late hours and working weekends,” adding that he “talked with him [Mr. Lamb] about his civilian work frequently.” Auditors noted (p.8), “As DAS’ Chief Legal Counsel, the items Mr. Lamb worked on for DAS should have been kept confidential and not discussed with acquaintances or individuals not associated with DAS.”

• Lamb did not comply with state rules for approving any of his timesheets during his tenure at DAS.

The attorney for DAS of all people should recognize the importance of following payroll procedures to the letter. The auditors noted (p.9) that “The State’s payroll system requires timesheet approval by the employee and the employee’s supervisor,” but

Based on our review of Mr. Lamb’s timesheets, Mr. Lamb provided the employee approval on only 1 timesheet during the period of his employment by DAS. A DAS personnel assistant provided the employee approval for 2 timesheets. For the remaining 72 of Mr. Lamb’s 75 timesheets, employee approval was applied by the assistant to the DAS Director.
The assistant to the DAS Director also provided the supervisor’s approval on behalf of the Director for 74 of the 75 timesheets. A DAS personnel assistant provided the supervisor’s approval for the remaining timesheet.

Because Mr. Lamb personally certified his hours worked for only 1 of his timesheets and none of Mr. Lamb’s timesheets were approved by his supervisor, the DAS Director, DAS did not comply with its rules which were established for all employees on the State’s payroll.

• Lamb allowed the evasion of internal controls “to prevent unauthorized timesheet approvals.”

The assistant to DAS Director Carroll handled both the employee approval of Lamb’s timesheets and the approval Lamb’s boss Carroll should have done himself. Auditors noted (p. 9), “By allowing an employee to have 2 logins for the payroll system, controls in place to prevent unauthorized timesheet approvals were circumvented.”

• No documents explained why Lamb received one of his retroactive salary hikes.

On pages 10 and 11, the report discusses a pay increase that Carroll approved for Lamb in February 2013. “There was no documentation in Mr. Lamb’s personnel file detailing why the pay increase was retroactive to December 21, 2012.”

• Auditors found anomalies related to Lamb’s next retroactive salary hike.

In theory, Lamb should have been eligible for another pay increase no sooner than December 2013 (one year after the raise that was made retroactive to December 2012), but “the next increase to Mr. Lamb’s base pay was in October 2013.” DAS documents indicate that raise was supposed to correct an error, but “it is unclear how an error of this magnitude was not identified in a more timely manner.” Auditors went on to say, “We are unable to determine if the retroactive pay increase was made in October 2013 in lieu of waiting until Mr. Lamb was eligible for a merit increase in December 2013.”

• Lamb took the Florida bar exam without using any of his vacation time.

Auditors discussed this allegation (first raised in the whistleblower’s letter) on page 12.

According to Mr. Lamb, he went to Florida to take the bar examination during his employment by DAS. As previously stated, we reviewed Mr. Lamb’s timesheets during his term of employment and identified no vacation hours used were recorded during the 34 months he was employed by DAS. This includes when the bar examination was administered in Florida. Vacation leave or time without pay should have been used when Mr. Lamb took the bar examination while employed by DAS. We also reviewed Mr. Lamb’s travel reimbursements and did not identify any reimbursements for a trip to Florida. Because we are unable to determine when Mr. Lamb was away from DAS to take the bar exam in Florida or the number of work days he was away, we were unable to determine the value of the vacation which should have been taken.

To sum up, the auditor’s report points to a disastrous record of compliance by the top attorney for the agency that is supposed to keep state government running by the book. State Auditor Mosiman put it mildly: “The state agencies should be following their own policies.”

Democratic State Senator Matt McCoy was more blunt when speaking to the AP’s Foley:

“This is a guy who was hired on a sweetheart deal without a qualification process, he was underpowered for the job, he didn’t follow state law, and, oh by the way, he double-dipped while he did all this,” [Democratic State Senator Matt] McCoy said. “The taxpayer got screwed six times on the deal.” […]

“Corrective actions have now been taken and the governor has full trust in Janet Phipps as director of the Department of Administrative Services,” [Branstad’s communications director Ben] Hammes said.

[DAS Director] Phipps said the department now follows state policies on military leave, timesheet approval and employee qualifications. The department is reviewing whether to seek reimbursement from Lamb, who now works as an attorney for The Weitz Co., a construction firm.

How could DAS even consider not asking Lamb to pay back his excess compensation? That’s the least he could do to make amends for his failures in public service.

Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread.