REPORT DIGEST

JUDGES’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM

COMPLIANCE EXAMINATION
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2017

Release Date:  April 26, 2018

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT:  2

CATEGORY:  NEW -- REPEAT -- TOTAL
Category 1:  0 -- 0 -- 0
Category 2:  1 -- 1 -- 2
Category 3:  0 -- 0 -- 0
TOTAL:  1 -- 1 -- 2

FINDINGS LAST AUDIT: 2

Category 1: Findings that are material
weaknesses in internal control and/or a
qualification on compliance with State laws
and regulations (material noncompliance).
Category 2: Findings that are significant
deficiencies in internal control and
noncompliance with State laws and
regulations.
Category 3: Findings that have no internal
control issues but are in noncompliance with
State laws and regulations.

State of Illinois, Office of the Auditor
General
FRANK J. MAUTINO, 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 and Full Report are also
available on the worldwide web at
www.auditor.illinois.gov

INTRODUCTION

This digest covers our Compliance Examination
of the Judges’ Retirement System for the year
ended June 30, 2017.  A separate Financial
Audit as of and for the year ending June 30,
2017, was previously released on February 8,
2018.  In total, this report contains 2
findings, none of which were reported in the
Financial Audit.

SYNOPSIS

• (17-1) The State Retirement System, which
administers the Judges’ Retirement System,
has weaknesses in their change management
procedures.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CHANGE MANAGEMENT WEAKNESSES

The State Retirement System, which
administers the Judges’ Retirement System
(System), has weaknesses in their change
management procedures.

The System develops and deploys custom
software to manage pension accounts of
Illinois members and collects, stores, and
processes confidential and protected
information related to this mission.

The System had established formal change
management procedures; however, the
procedures did not address migrating changes
into the production environment. In addition,
programmers developing and making changes to
applications had access to the production
environment and the capability to implement
changes. Furthermore, monitoring tools were
not in place to detect unauthorized code
migrations.  (Finding 1, page 10)

We recommended the System continue to update
its change management procedures to address
specific procedures for migrating changes
into the production environment. We also
recommended, the procedures include a
standard form for requesting a change be
moved into production and include user and
management approval and ensure programmers
are prevented from migrating changes into the
production environment. Lastly, we
recommended if the Office determines that
programmer access is necessary in some
situations, it should establish and enforce
compensating controls to ensure appropriate
and documented management oversight and
approval.

System officials accepted the auditor’s
recommendation and indicated they are working
to implement an upgrade to existing software
in calendar year 2018 which will remedy the
change management weaknesses noted.

OTHER FINDING

The remaining finding pertains to the System
not properly monitoring its contracts during
the engagement period.  We will review the
System’s progress towards the implementation
of our recommendations in our next State
compliance examination.

ACCOUNTANT’S OPINION

The accountants conducted a State compliance
examination of the Judges’ Retirement System
for the year ended June 30, 2017, as required
by the Illinois State Auditing Act.  The
accountants stated the System complied, in
all material respects, with the requirements
described in the report.

This State compliance examination was
conducted by RSM US LLP.

JANE CLARK
Division Director

This report is transmitted in accordance with
Section 3-14 of the Illinois State Auditing
Act.

FRANK J. MAUTINO
Auditor General

FJM:JAF