By The Iowa Statesman
During a recent review of county governments in the state, IowaTransparency.org — an arm of the Public Interest Institute — reported nearly three-fourths of all counties failed a transparency audit.
“Each month Public Interest Institute focuses on an issue pertaining to transparency and specifically tries to focus on Iowa issues,” the website stated. “In December of 2014, we reported on the status of the state of Iowa’s specially developed transparency Website. We were glad to report that Iowa was officially at an A-minus. This month we are looking at the issue of transparency in relationship to the county Websites and how well they are disseminating information by electronic form.”
The audit found 45 of Iowa’s 99 counties received an F grade in terms of transparency. Another 28 received D or D-minus grades. There were 21 C and C-minus grades.
The following counties made the transparency “honor roll,” receiving B or A grades:
• Johnson, A-minus• Scott, A-minus
• Clay, B-minus
• Linn, B-minus
• Warren, B-minus
“As you can see from the table, we have a couple counties that have worked hard to increase transparency at the county level such as Johnson and Scott Counties, but we have many counties that have a long way to go to increase transparency at the county level,” the report stated. CLICK HERE to see the full report.
The Public Interest Institute is an independent, non-profit organization that researches principles and methods to promote and encourage human rights, economic freedom, economic growth, and the creation of jobs in Iowa. It also researches issues such as limiting government spending and privatization of government services.
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