Procedures over monitoring revenues were not fully adequate |
FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- NEED TO FURTHER IMPROVE PROCEDURES FOR MONITORING REVENUES
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- The Board needs to further improve its existing procedures for monitoring and analyzing
the surcharge fees received from Circuit Clerks to help determine if the monies received
were properly assessed, collected, and remitted timely to the State Treasurer.
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- Beginning with fiscal year 1999, the Clerks of Courts Act (705 ILCS 105/27.7) requires
the county board of each county, to conduct an audit of the office of the Circuit Clerk in
addition to any audits required by law. The Board had a significant role in the
development of this legislation. These annual audits of Illinois Circuit Clerks may
include reviews of remittances submitted to State and local entities. Although these
annual audits would not relieve the Board of its responsibility to monitor receipts, the
audit reports should assist the Board in reconciling annual remittances received to
amounts reported by Circuit Clerks.
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- The following areas for improvement in the Board's procedures to monitor receipts from
Circuit Clerks were noted:
¨ The Board could enhance its procedures for analyzing reasonableness of receipts and
investigating unusual trends. These procedures would assist the Board in its efforts to
determine whether all surcharge fees are assessed, collected, and timely remitted to the
State Treasurer.
¨ The Board could also improve its existing follow-up procedures for investigating
missing and delinquent payments by Circuit Clerks. The Board conducted analysis for
delinquent payments; however, the Board did not obtain reasons for late payments.
¨ The Board has not yet requested Circuit Clerks to submit, directly to the Board, a
report of the amount of funds remitted to the State Treasurer during the preceding
calendar year. A reconciliation between the report and Board's records would aid in
detecting errors and irregularities.
¨ No special audits of Circuit Clerks were performed during the audit period. The
Board contracted with an auditing firm to perform a limited audit of two counties due to
irregular deposits in fiscal year 1998; however, the work will not be completed until
fiscal year 1999. (Finding 98-1, pages 13-14)
- We recommended the Board enhance its existing controls over fees received from Circuit
Clerks by requesting directly from the Circuit Clerks a report of the amount of funds
remitted to the State Treasurer during the preceding calendar year and reconciling these
reports to Board records. Further, the Board should periodically analyze remittances from
Circuit Clerks and investigate unusual trends and fluctuations.
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- The Board accepted the recommendation and stated although the receipts are cyclical in
nature and dependent upon the vagaries of traffic ticket, arrest volume and policy of the
courts, future Board inquiries will center around information developed during the new
single audit of the Clerks to provide some explanation of the variances in collections.
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- OTHER FINDING
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- The remaining finding was less significant and officials have responded that appropriate
corrective action is in progress. We will review the Board's progress towards implementing
our recommendations during the next audit.
- Thomas J. Jurkanin, Ph.D., Executive Director, provided responses to our findings and
recommendations.
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AUDITORS' OPINION
- We have stated the financial statements of the Board as of and for the years ended June
30, 1998 and 1997 are fairly presented in all material respects.
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___________________________________
WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General
- WGH:GSR:pp
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SPECIAL ASSISTANT AUDITORS
- The Bronner Group, Inc. were our special assistant auditors for this audit.
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