REPORT DIGEST

LINCOLN CORRECTIONAL CENTER

COMPLIANCE AUDIT

For the Two Years Ended:
June 30, 2000

Summary of Findings:

Total this audit 4
Total last audit 0
Repeated from last audit 0

Release Date:
April 10, 2001

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State of Illinois
Office of the Auditor General

WILLIAM G. HOLLAND

AUDITOR GENERAL

To obtain a copy of the Report contact:
Office of the Auditor General
Attn: Records Manager
Iles Park Plaza
740 E. Ash Street
Springfield, IL 62703

(217)782-6046 or TDD (217) 524-4646

This Report Digest is also available on
the worldwide web at
http://www.state.il.us/auditor

 

 

SYNOPSIS

  • Funds appropriated to Lincoln Correctional Center were used to provide about $5,092,000 (net) in food and personal services to other organizational units in the Department of Corrections.
  • Due to numerous vacancies and a lack of relevant staff training, the Center’s Business Office did not have consistent, reliable accounting records for certain office operations.
  • Numerous errors were detected in the Center’s year-end physical counts of commodities on hand and in its perpetual records. Our initial tests disclosed a 24% error rate in the Center’s year-end inventory counts and an 80% error rate in the perpetual inventory records.

 

{Expenditures and Activity Measures are summarized on the reverse page.}

 

 

 

ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
LINCOLN CORRECTIONAL CENTER
COMPLIANCE AUDIT
For The Two Years Ended June 30, 2000

EXPENDITURE STATISTICS

FY 2000

FY 1999

FY 1998

Total Expenditures (All Appropriated Funds)

$23,321,819

$21,826,463

$20,116,730

Personal Services

% of Total Expenditures
Average No. of Employees
Average Salary Per Employee
Inmate Compensation

% of Total Expenditures

$12,647,449

54.23%
315
$40,150
$328,225

1.41%

$12,391,591

56.77%
320
$38,724
$325,253

1.49%

$11,712,436

58.22%
327
$35,818
$303,732

1.51%

Other Payroll Costs (FICA, Retirement)

% of Total Expenditures

$2,847,680

12.21%

$2,101,903

9.63%

$1,468,750

7.30%

Contractual Services

% of Total Expenditures

$3,185,341

13.66%

$2,666,269

12.22%

$2,549,602

12.67%

Commodities

% of Total Expenditures
All Other Items

% of Total Expenditures

$4,001,241

17.15%
$311,883

1.34%

$4,093,652

18.76%
$247,795

1.13%

$3,790,694

18.85%
$291,516

1.45%

  • Cost of Property and Equipment

$17,253,022

$17,070,540

$16,530,632

SELECTED ACTIVITY MEASURES

FY 2000

FY 1999

FY 1998

Average Number of Inmates

1,052

1,053

1,019

Ratio of Correctional Officers to Inmates

1/4.5

1/4.4

1/4.1

Cost Per Year Per Inmate*

$19,707

$18,236

$17,402

Rated Inmate Capacity

558

558

558

Approximate Square Feet Per Inmate
Lincoln Facility
Springfield Facility

*As adjusted for food and services shared with Logan Correctional Center.

 

29

72

 

29

72

 

30

72

CENTER WARDEN(S)

During Audit Period and Currently: Augustus Scott, Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misuse of appropriations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inconsistent and unreliable accounting records

 

 

General ledger not updated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing of year-end inventory disclosed problems with accounting records and inventory taking procedures

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

PAYMENT OF EXPENDITURES FOR Other CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES

During the audit period, appropriations for the Lincoln Correctional Center were used to provide about $5,092,000 (net) in food and personal service costs to other Correctional facilities, as follows:

  • Lincoln Correctional Center paid about $4,548,000 in food costs for other facilities ($4,170,000 for Logan Correctional Center; and $378,000 for the Concordia Training Academy).
  • Lincoln Correctional Center paid about $591,000 in personal service related costs for other facilities ($372,000 for Logan Correctional Center; and $219,000 for Concordia Training Academy).
  • Conversely, appropriations for Logan Correctional Center were used to provide about $47,000 in personal service costs for Lincoln Correctional Center.

The practice of paying expenditures of other Correctional facilities distorts operating statistics and circumvents the appropriation control of the Legislature. Further, this practice does not comply with the payroll and voucher certification clauses contained in the State Finance Act. (Finding Code 00-3, pages 16-17)

The Department accepted our recommendation to either comply with the language of the existing appropriation act or work with the General Assembly to modify future wording to permit the Department's current practice. According to its response, a realignment of the Lincoln and Logan business offices began in fiscal year 2000, but the separation had not yet been completed.

NEED TO IMPROVE Business Office Staffing and Training

Due to numerous vacancies and a lack of relevant staff training, the Center’s Business Office did not have consistent, reliable accounting records for certain office operations. We noted numerous errors and a lack of consistent, reliable financial information.

Further, no one had updated the Center’s general ledgers for general revenue transactions between May 1999 and August 2000. Therefore, the Center staff could not properly reconcile its sub-ledgers for its commodities or equipment inventories. This situation adversely affected management’s ability to evaluate the Center’s financial position, predict future needs and available resources, and evaluate the effectiveness in disbursing funds.

We recommended the Department reallocate resources to ensure the Center’s Business Office is adequately staffed and employees properly trained. The Center’s general ledger should be maintained, as necessary, in compliance with internal directives. (Finding Code 00-1, pages 11-12)

According to the response, the Department accepted and has partially implemented the finding. All business office positions had been filled, effective January 2001. Staff will be trained on-site, at other facilities with staff in comparable positions, and through various training sessions.

NEED TO IMPROVE PHYSICAL COUNTS AND RECORDKEEPING FOR COMMODITIES INVENTORIES

Numerous errors were detected in the Center’s year-end physical counts of commodities on hand and in its perpetual records.

Our initial testing of the Center’s year-end inventory counts disclosed a 24% error rate. This situation was due to a lack of sufficient training, inefficient physical arrangement of the goods, and employee errors in counting and pricing. Similarly, our initial testing of the Center’s perpetual records disclosed an 80% error rate, caused by untimely data input.

Due to the extent of errors, we increased sample sizes and expanded our testing. We determined that commodities acquisitions were not recorded until about 19 days after goods had been received. Commodities issued were not removed from the inventory records until about 16 days later.

These errors had not previously been detected. No one was reconciling the computerized inventory records monthly or at year-end, since the general ledger was not up-to-date. The reconciliation process is crucial to the Center’s completion of reliable, timely accounting information, for submission to the Department's General Office.

Management had not placed priority on the need to properly train staff or to promptly record all inventory transactions. In addition, management had not ascertained that physical counts taken were reliable. Errors and untimely recordkeeping could result in inventory misstatements or undetected losses. After we found these problems, management took corrective action to assure the final year-end balances reported would be reliable.

The Department accepted our recommendations and stated responsible inventory staff will be trained, inventories supervised, and the general ledger will be maintained and reconciled as required. (Finding Code 00-2, pages 13-15)

OTHER FINDING

The remaining finding and recommendation was less significant and is being given attention by Department management. We will review progress toward implementation of our recommendations during our next audit.

Responses were provided by Mr. Mark B. Krell, CIA, on January 21, 2001.

AUDITORS' OPINION

We conducted a compliance audit of the Center as required by the Illinois State Auditing Act. We also performed certain agreed upon procedures with respect to the accounting records of the Center to assist our audit of the entire Department. Financial statements for the Department will be presented in that report.

 

_____________________________________

WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General

 

WGH:JHL:pp

SPECIAL ASSISTANT AUDITORS

Our special assistant auditors were Kula, Cowan & Barnes, P.C.