Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board 2001 Audit

REPORT DIGEST

ILLINOIS EDUCATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
FINANCIAL AND COMPLIANCE AUDIT

For the Two Years Ended:
June 30, 2001

Summary of Findings:

Total this audit 3
Total last audit 1
Repeated from last audit 0

Release Date:
April 3, 2002

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
Attn: Records Manager
Iles Park Plaza
740 E. Ash Street
Springfield, IL 62703

(217)782-6046 or TDD (217) 524-4646

This Report Digest is also available on
the worldwide web at
http://www.state.il.us/auditor

SYNOPSIS

The Board did not timely process payments for final orders of fair share cases.

The Board did not maintain sufficient controls over the recording and reporting of fixed assets.

{Expenditures and Activity Measures are summarized on the reverse page.}

ILLINOIS EDUCATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
FINANCIAL AND COMPLIANCE AUDIT
For The Two Years Ended June 30, 2001

EXPENDITURE STATISTICS	FY 2001	FY 2000	FY 1999
Total Expenditures (All Appropriated Funds)	$1,675,743	$1,589,395	$1,532,386
OPERATIONS TOTAL % of Total Expenditures	$1,675,743 100%	$1,589,395 100%	$1,532,386 100%
Personal Services % of Operations Expenditures Average No. of Employees	$1,126,624 67% 22	$1,069,433 67% 22	$1,029,975 67% 20
Other Payroll Costs (FICA, Retirement) % of Operations Expenditures	$236,152 14%	$221,330 14%	$212,811 14%
Contractual Services % of Operations Expenditures	$156,281 9%	$135,000 9%	$132,348 9%
Electronic Data Processing % of Operations Expenditures	$51,334 3%	$63,866 4%	$57,259 4%
Equipment % of Operations Expenditures	$42,597 3%	$33,410 2%	$34,994 2%
All Other Operations Items % of Operations Expenditures	$62,755 4%	$66,356 4%	$64,999 4%
Cost of Property and Equipment	$532,713	$506,649	$520,932

SELECTED ACTIVITY MEASURES	FY 2001	FY 2000	FY 1999
Representation Cases Filed	75	90	171
Unfair Labor Practice Cases Filed	383	462	504

AGENCY DIRECTOR(S)

During Audit Period: Victor Blackwell
Currently: Victor Blackwell

Payments in fair share cases were not timely

Controls over reporting fixed assets were not adequate

INTRODUCTION

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board was created on January 1, 1984 to administer the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act (115 ILCS 5/1 et seq). The Board consists of a chairman and six members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Board has jurisdiction over collective bargaining matters between educational employees and public school educational employers. The Board’s primary responsibilities under the Act are to process representation petitions including conducting elections, to process unfair labor practice charges, and to process mediation/arbitration requests.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDTATIONS

INADEQUATE CONTROL OVER PROCESSING OF FAIR SHARE FINAL ORDER

The Board did not timely process payments for final orders in fair share cases. We reviewed 6 consolidated fair share cases finalized by the Board during the audit period and noted that 2 (33%) consolidated cases were not processed for payment in a timely manner. The decisions were issued by the Judge on November 30, 2000 and February 8, 2001. These decisions included fair share disbursements of approximately $31,000 and $19,000 plus accrued interest. A copy of the final order on the decisions involving 75 and 46 fair share objectors, respectively, had not been forwarded to accounting personnel for payment as of October 25, 2001. (Finding 1, pages 10-11)

We recommended that the Board ensure that fair share final orders are forwarded to accounting promptly and ensure payments are processed in a timely manner.

The Board accepted our recommendation and stated procedures have been implemented to ensure fair share final orders are received by the accounting unit in a timely manner.

PROPERTY CONTROL AND REPORTING WEAKNESSES

The Board did not maintain sufficient controls over recording or reporting of fixed assets. We noted the following:

Two capital lease assets were not entered on the property records, Quarterly Report of Fixed Assets and GAAP forms thereby understating capital lease assets by $5,000 in FY00 and $9,023 in FY01.

Fifteen of 35 (43%) equipment items tested that were purchased during the audit period were not recorded at full cost resulting in an understatement of $487. We also noted that the Board purchased memory and hardware for computers and did not increase the values of those assets, resulting in an understatement of $1,791.

Equipment additions, deletions, and transfers were not properly classified on the C-15s. During FY00, $23,030 of inter-agency transfers were incorrectly reported as additions, and $22,601 of inter-agency transfers were incorrectly reported as deletions on the C-15's.

Four of 50 (8%) items tested were not properly tagged.

We recommended that the Board maintain proper control over the accuracy of property control records. (Finding 3, pages 13-14)

The Board accepted our recommendation and stated it will maintain proper control over the accuracy of property control records.

OTHER FINDING

The remaining finding is less significant and is reportedly being given appropriate attention by the Board. We will review progress towards implementing our recommendations during our next audit.

Responses to the recommendations were provided by the Board’s Fiscal Officer Cheri Wehmhoff.

AUDITORS’ OPINION

We have stated the financial statements of the Educational Labor Relations Board’s Fair Share Trust Fund are fairly presented in all material respects as of June 30, 2001 and June 30, 2000.

____________________________________

WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General

WGH:GSR:pp

AUDITORS ASSIGNED

The audit was conducted by staff of the Office of the Auditor General.