REPORT DIGEST

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE

FINANCIAL AUDIT
FOR THE TWO YEARS ENDED JUNE 30, 2025

Release Date:  May 5, 2026

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT: 13

CATEGORY:  NEW -- REPEAT – TOTAL
Category 1:  0 -- 1 -- 2
Category 2:  6 -- 6 -- 12
Category 3:  0 -- 0 -- 0
TOTAL:  6 -- 7 -- 13

FINDINGS LAST AUDIT: 12

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, 400 West
Monroe, Suite 306, Springfield, IL
62704-9849
(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

SYNOPSIS

• (25-01) The Office of the Secretary of
State did not demonstrate adequate control
over property and equipment during the
engagement period.
• (25-05) The Office had not established
adequate controls for accessing its
computing environment.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

WEAKNESS RELATED TO PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT

The Office of the Secretary of State
(Office) did not demonstrate adequate
control over property and equipment during
the engagement period.

Recording and reporting weaknesses were
identified during our detailed testing of
the Office’s State property as follows:

• The Office was not able to reconcile the
Form C-15 to the Office’s property listing
for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025. The
unreconciled differences as of the end of
Fiscal Year 2024 and Fiscal Year 2025
totaled $19,634,760 and $7,465,261,
respectively.

Due to the condition identified above, we
were unable to conclude whether the
Office’s population records were
sufficiently precise and detailed under the
Attestation Standards promulgated by the
American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AT-C § 205.36) to test the
Office’s controls over property and
equipment.

Even given the population limitations noted
above hindered the ability of the
accountants to conclude whether selected
samples were representative of the
population as a whole, we performed the
following tests:

• During our testing of 60 property
additions, we noted the following:

-- Nine of 60 (15%) property additions
tested, totaling $136,424, were not added
to Office property records timely, ranging
from 10 to 204 days late. Items that were
not added in a timely manner were vehicles,
office equipment and IT equipment.

-- Two of 60 (3%) property additions
tested, totaling $7,605, did not include
the cost of freight to the total cost of
the asset in the property records. The
unrecorded freight cost totaled to $371.

• During our property deletion testing, we
noted one of 40 (3%) property deletions
tested, amounting to $15,330, was removed
from the property records 5 days late. The
item that was not removed in a timely
manner was a vehicle.

• During our floor to list testing of
Office equipment items, we noted two of 60
(3%) items tested, totaling $353, were
found in a different location than stated
in the property records. The two items
noted were computer monitors.

• During our list to floor testing of
Office equipment items, we noted one of 60
(2%) items selected for observation,
amounting to $3,612, was not identified and
removed from the property records as it was
obsolete and no longer used in operations.

• During our testing of State property
policies, we noted the Office failed to
adopt a formal policy that clearly
delineates the categories of equipment
considered subject to theft. (Finding 1,
pages 10-12) This finding has been reported
since 2019.

We recommended the Office strengthen its
internal controls and procedures to ensure
its property and equipment are reported and
accounted for in a manner which complies
with applicable laws, rules, and
regulations. In addition, we recommended
the Office establish a high-theft policy
that clearly delineates the categories of
equipment considered subject to theft.

The Office accepted the finding.

INADEQUATE CONTROLS OVER USER ACCESS

The Office had not established adequate
controls for accessing its computing
environment.

During fieldwork, we examined the Office’s
general information technology controls
over nine significant applications. During
our testing, we noted the following:

• The Office had not established detailed
policies and procedures related to access
provisioning, modification, and
termination.

• For 17 of 35 (49%) sampled new user
access requests, the Office did not
maintain proper documentation of user
access requests and approval prior to
granting access.

• For 30 of 42 (71%) sampled terminated
users, the Office did not remove user
access in a timely manner after access was
no longer needed.

• For 5 of 60 (8%) sampled active user
access, users had access rights that did
not align with job duties.

• The Office did not conduct an annual
review of user access rights for 8 of the 9
(89%) significant applications examined.
(Finding 5, pages 20-21) This finding has
been reported since 2021.

We recommended the Office establish
policies and procedures, maintain proper
documentation of access requests and
approval prior to granting access, remove
user access timely, and conduct an annual
review of user access rights for
significant applications.

The Office accepted the finding.

OTHER FINDINGS

The remaining compliance findings are
reportedly being given attention by Office
management. We will review the Office’s
progress towards the implementation of our
recommendations in our next compliance
examination.

ACCOUNTANT’S OPINION

The accountants conducted a State
compliance examination of the Office for
the two years ended June 30, 2025, as
required by the Illinois State Auditing
Act.  The accountants qualified their
report on State compliance for Finding
2025-001.  Except for the noncompliance
described in this finding, the accountants
stated the Office complied, in all material
respects, with the requirements described
in the report.

This State compliance examination was
conducted by Adelfia LLC.

COURTNEY DZIERWA
Division Director

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

FRANK J. MAUTINO
Auditor General

FJM:sdw