Jon Neiderbach is promising to ask hard questions about financial management and government efficiency if he’s elected to be Iowa’s auditor of state.

“I’m going to ask lots of really uncomfortable questions about how we do things,” he said Tuesday in Fort Dodge. “Folks who like the status quo are not going to like my auditor’s office.”

The Democratic candidate said he has a “strong background in analyzing and tearing apart and asking tough questions about government budgets.”

Neiderbach is unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the June 3 primary election. He’ll face Republican Auditor of State Mary Mosiman, who’s also unopposed in the primary, in the November general election.

Neiderbach said he wants to maintain the focus on financial management while also examining government efficiency and effectiveness.

He noted that the auditor is often called the “taxpayers’ watchdog.”

“In order to be the taxpayers’ watchdog, you need to do all of the things Iowa law says the auditor should be doing,” he said. “That includes looking at the effectiveness, efficiency of how departments work, whether they operate according to to law, whether they’re operated in a business like manner.”

He said Mosiman and her predecessor, Republican David Vaudt, haven’t done that.

Neiderbach said he would have to add five professional employees to the auditor’s office in order to begin investigating government efficiency and effectiveness.

“I anticipate that those positions would more than pay for themselves,” he said.

Neiderbach is not a certified public accountant.

“Quite frankly, I don’t understand why it’s remotely relevant,” he said. “It is great to have experts, but they don’t have to be the person running the office.”