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

http://www.state.il.us/auditor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.”