REPORT DIGEST

GUARDIANSHIP AND ADVOCACY COMMISSION

COMPLIANCE EXAMINATION
FOR THE TWO YEARS ENDED JUNE 30, 2019

Release Date:  March 18, 2021

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT:  14

CATEGORY:  NEW -- REPEAT -- TOTAL
Category 1:  2 -- 0 -- 2
Category 2:  7 -- 5 -- 12
Category 3:  0 -- 0 -- 0
TOTAL:  9 -- 5 -- 14

FINDINGS LAST AUDIT: 5

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

SYNOPSIS

• (19-01) The Commission did not exercise
adequate controls over its receipt
processing.
• (19-02) The Commission did not maintain
adequate controls over its interagency
agreements.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

INADEQUATE CONTROL OVER RECEIPT
PROCESSING

The Guardianship and Advocacy Commission
(Commission) did not exercise adequate
controls over its receipt processing.

During testing, we noted the following:

• The Commission improperly processed all
of its refund transactions as receipts
during the examination period. In each of
these six instances, totaling $7,655, the
Commission recorded the transaction on a
Receipt Deposit Transmittal form instead
of the required Expenditure Adjustment
Transmittal (EAT) form.

• The Commission failed to maintain an
adequate segregation of duties over its
receipt processing procedures. More
specifically, one individual performed
multiple parts of the transaction cycle,
including:

– Authorization by reviewing and
approving transactions, including both
depositing funds into the State
Treasury’s clearing accounts and
preparing C-64 forms;

– Custody by handling and depositing
physical checks and money orders and
maintaining electronic and physical
records; and,

– Recordkeeping by preparing entries and
maintaining the Commission’s internal
accounting records.

• The Commission’s receipt records could
not be reconciled to the Comptroller’s
records (i.e. the Monthly Revenue Status
Report (SB04)) due to unsupported
processing error amounts totaling $1,731
and $11,359 in Fiscal Year 2018 and
Fiscal Year 2019, respectively.
Additional support could neither be
located nor provided by the Commission.

Records maintained by the Commission
indicate receipts totaling $188,213 and
$164,910 were processed during Fiscal
Year 2018 and Fiscal Year 2019,
respectively.  (Finding 1, pages 12-13)

We recommended the Commission ensure it
processes its refund receipts correctly,
maintains adequate segregation of duties
over receipt processing, and prepares
monthly reconciliations as required. In
addition, we recommended the Commission
should follow up and correct any errors
noted during the reconciliation process.

Commission officials agreed with our
recommendation.

INADEQUATE CONTROL OVER INTERAGENCY
AGREEMENTS

The Commission did not maintain adequate
controls over its interagency agreements.

The Commission provided an initial list
of interagency agreements but later added
an additional agreement. Also, the
Commission removed agreements from the
initial listing as the Commission later
determined they were not interagency
agreements.

Due to this condition, the accountants
concluded the Commission’s population
records for interagency agreements were
not sufficiently precise and detailed
under the Attestation Standards
promulgated by the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants (AT-C §
205.35).

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

• One of three (33%) interagency
agreements tested expired as of December
31, 2017, and had not been replaced or
renegotiated.

• The Commission is not tracking
referrals from the Department of Children
and Family Services (DCFS). Therefore, we
cannot determine if the Commission is in
compliance with the terms of the
interagency agreement.

• Since the Commission is not tracking
referrals from DCFS, we could not
determine the population of referrals for
the two year period and, therefore, could
not test the compliance with the
interagency agreement.

Due to these conditions, the accountants
concluded the Commission’s population
records for referrals from DCFS were not
sufficiently precise and detailed under
the Attestation Standards promulgated by
the American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants (AT-C § 205.35).
(Finding 2, pages 14-15)

We recommended the Commission ensure
interagency agreement records are
properly tracked and maintained.

Commission officials agreed with our
recommendation.

OTHER FINDINGS

The remaining findings pertain to
inadequate controls over employee
attendance records, performance
evaluations, State property,
reconciliations, payroll files, voucher
processing, locally held funds, and
report submissions; weaknesses in
internal control over Agency Workforce
Reports; noncompliance with the
Guardianship and Advocacy Act; weaknesses
regarding electronic data processing
procedures; and weaknesses regarding
cybersecurity programs and practices. We
will review the Commission’s progress
towards the implementation of our
recommendations in our next compliance
examination.

ACCOUNTANT’S OPINION

The accountants conducted a compliance
examination of the Agency for the two
years ended June 30, 2019, as required by
the Illinois State Auditing Act.  The
accountants qualified their report on
State compliance for Findings 2019-001
and 2019-002.  Except for the
noncompliance described in these
findings, the accountants stated the
Commission complied, in all material
respects, with the requirements described
in the report.

This compliance examination was conducted
by the Office of the Auditor General’s
staff.

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:SDW