|
REPORT DIGEST
ILLINOIS COURT OF CLAIMS
COMPLIANCE EXAMINATION For the Two Years Ended: June 30, 2005 Summary of Findings: Total this audit 3 Total last audit 3 Repeated from last audit 1 Release Date:
March 9, 2006
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 Iles Park Plaza 740 E. Ash Street Springfield, IL 62703 (217) 782-6046 or TTY (888) 261-2887 This Report Digest is also
available on the worldwide web at |
SYNOPSIS ¨ Management did not fully address known deficiencies over personal services.
{Expenditures and Activity
Measures are summarized on the reverse page.} |
ILLINOIS COURT OF CLAIMS
COMPLIANCE
EXAMINATION
For
The Two Years Ended June 30, 2005
|
EXPENDITURE STATISTICS |
FY 2005 |
FY 2004 |
FY 2003 |
|
Total Expenditures (All Funds)................... |
$58,911,639 |
$39,271,405 |
$58,098,237 |
|
OPERATIONS
TOTAL.................................
% of Total Expenditures........................ |
$1,431,963
2.4% |
$1,377,292
3.5% |
$1,286,896
2.2% |
|
Personal Services...................................
% of
Operations Expenditures...........
Average Number of Employees: Part-time (excludes 7 judges not paid from the Court’s appropriation)......
Full-time................................. |
$894,352
62.5%
28
5 |
$873,366
63.4%
29
5 |
$845,028
65.7%
32
5 |
|
Other Payroll Costs (FICA,
Retirement)....................................................
% of Operations Expenditures........... |
$239,161
16.7% |
$177,386
12.9% |
$179,491
13.9% |
|
Contractual Services..............................
% of Operations Expenditures........... |
$8,762
0.6% |
$10,112
0.7% |
$12,148
0.9% |
|
Lump Sum and Other Purposes...............
% of Operations Expenditures............. |
$262,702
18.3% |
$287,999
20.9% |
$226,329
17.6% |
|
All Other Operations Items.....................
% of
Operations Expenditures........... |
$26,986
1.9% |
$28,429
2.1% |
$23,900
1.9% |
|
AWARDS AND
GRANTS TOTAL................
% of Total Expenditures........................ |
$57,479,676
97.6% |
$37,894,113
96.5% |
$56,811,341
97.8% |
|
Cost of
Property and Equipment................. |
$157,137 |
$154,190 |
$117,850 |
|
SELECTED ACTIVITY
MEASURES |
FY 2005 |
FY 2004 |
FY 2003 |
|
Filing Fees Collected............................................ |
$7,465 |
$7,968 |
$10,345 |
|
Total Claims Awarded......................................... |
5,907 |
6,777 |
7,599 |
|
Total Claims
Denied............................................ |
2,538 |
2,841 |
2,577 |
|
Total Claims Dismissed........................................ |
863 |
800 |
999 |
ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY HEADS |
|
During Audit Period: Matthew J. Finnell, Court
Administrator
Delores Martin, Director and
Deputy Clerk
Currently: Matthew J. Finnell, Court Administrator
Delores
Martin, Director and Deputy Clerk |
|
Attendance records were
incomplete Employee performance
evaluations were not conducted |
FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
MANAGEMENT FAILURE TO FULLY ADDRESS KNOWN DEFICIENCIES OVER PERSONAL SERVICES Court management did not fully address known deficiencies over personal services despite recurring findings. · The Court did not maintain official and complete attendance records for three of five (60%) employees. In FY05, one employee left the agency, and the Court began to maintain official leave records for a second employee. Further, attendance and payroll records could not be reconciled to ensure employees were not paid for unearned leave time. In addition, the Court did not prepare and submit the FY04 and FY05 Compensated Absences (SCO-580) accounting report to the Comptroller’s Office. ·
The Court did not conduct or document performance
evaluations of five full-time employees.
(Finding 1, Pages 9-10) This finding has been repeated since
1999. We recommended that the Court: · Timely prepare and maintain all attendance records. · Routinely compare accrued leave balances to payroll expenditures. · Annually prepare and submit the SCO-580 report. · Conduct and document annual performance evaluations of all full-time employees. The Court concurred with the recommendations and stated that
the Court brought the records of four of its employees into compliance. In addition, the Court responded that it
has a plan for bringing the remaining
employee’s records into compliance and providing the SCO-580 report to
the Comptroller’s Office. The Court
further stated that it is preparing evaluation forms and |
|
expects to have the evaluations done in the next few weeks. (For previous Court responses, see Digest footnote #1.) OTHER
FINDINGS The remaining findings are less significant and are reportedly being given attention by the Court. We will review the Court’s progress toward the implementation of our recommendations in our next examination. Mr. Matthew Finnell, Court Administrator, and Ms. Delores Martin, Director and Deputy Clerk, provided the responses to our recommendations. AUDITORS’
OPINION
We conducted a compliance examination of the Court as required by the Illinois State Auditing Act. The Court had no financial statements requiring a financial audit leading to an opinion. ____________________________________ WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General WGH:LKW:pp SPECIAL ASSISTANT AUDITORS E.C. Ortiz & Co., LLP were our special assistant auditors for this engagement. DIGEST
FOOTNOTES #1 MANAGEMENT FAILURE TO FULLY ADDRESS KNOWN
DEFICIENCIES OVER PERSONAL SERVICES
2003: “The
Court agrees with the finding and all of the recommendations. We are presently in the process of
reconstructing the records and expect to be finished by the end of February
2004, if not sooner. In addition, the
Court intends to relieve the person
primarily responsible for the finding of most of his duties in that regard
and transfer them to another person. A
performance evaluation form has been drafted. It is the Court’s intention to perform an immediate evaluation
for the prior two fiscal years and then annually in July hereafter.” |