FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OVERPAYMENT TO EMPLOYEES
Two employees were overpaid $1,244 at the time of separation.
The State Finance Act (30 ILCS 105/14a) requires agencies to certify to employees in
writing the amount of benefit time accrued at the time of their separation. In order to
comply with this requirement, the Department of Corrections developed the Lump Sum
Worksheet. This form states that compensatory time should be converted from hours to days.
For the two employees' tested, however, compensatory time was not converted to days.
Therefore, the employees were overpaid. (Finding 00-1, page 9)
We recommended the Center recover the overpayments and remind employees of the proper
methods to be used in calculating benefit payments.
Center officials accepted our recommendation.
MANUAL TIMEKEEPING SYSTEM PRODUCED ERRORS
The Center's manually prepared payroll timekeeping system produced several errors.
In our testing of payroll accruals for vacation time, sick time, and compensatory time, we
noted that 17 of 24 (71%) of employee records tested had errors. These errors resulted in
overpayments totaling $1,033. (Finding 00-2, Page 10) This finding has been
repeated since 1996.
We recommended Center management reinforce the importance of maintaining accurate
time records so that time sheets accurately present compensatory time earned.
Center officials agreed and stated the inaccurate time sheets had been corrected. In
addition, a full-time staff person has been hired and an audit of timekeeping will be
conducted. (For previous Agency responses, see Digest Footnote 1)
LACK OF CONTRACT BID DOCUMENTATION
The Center did not always document their attempts to obtain bids or quotes for
services.
The Department of Correction’s Administrative Directive requires: (1) formal bids
for contracts exceeding $5,000 annually, (2) informal bids for contracts with an annual
value between $1,000 and $5,000, and (3) telephone quotes from at least three vendors for
contracts less than $1,000.
We noted four maintenance service contracts totaling $66,000 which were subject to
these requirements, however, no documentation was maintained to verify this. (Finding
00-4, page 12)
We recommended that Center personnel maintain documentation that verifies bid
information for procuring goods and services.
Center officials agreed with our recommendation stating that bid documentation is now
being retained for fiscal year 2001 contracts.
OTHER FINDINGS
The other findings were less significant. We will review progress toward
implementation of all recommendations in our next compliance audit.
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 single audit of the entire Department.
Financial statements for the Department will be presented in the single audit report.
____________________________________
WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General
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SPECIAL ASSISTANT AUDITORS
Our special assistant auditors were Martin and Shadid, Certified Public
Accountants.
DIGEST FOOTNOTES
