REPORT DIGEST

SUPREME COURT HISTORIC PRESERVATION
COMMISSION

COMPLIANCE EXAMINATION
FOR THE TWO YEARS ENDED JUNE 30, 2025

Release Date:  July 14, 2026

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT: 2

CATEGORY:  NEW -- REPEAT – TOTAL
Category 1:  0 -- 1 -- 1
Category 2:  0 -- 1 -- 1
Category 3:  0 -- 0 -- 0
TOTAL:  0 -- 2 -- 2

FINDINGS LAST AUDIT: 2

State of Illinois, Office of the Auditor
General
CHRISTOPHER B. MEISTER, 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

• (25-1) The Supreme Court Historic
Preservation Commission (Commission) did
not maintain adequate controls over
personal services.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

INADEQUATE CONTROLS OVER PERSONAL SERVICES

The Supreme Court Historic Preservation
Commission (Commission) did not maintain
adequate controls over personal services.

During the testing of employees, we noted
the Commission did not maintain adequate
control or have formal policies in place
over personnel records and payroll to
minimize the risk of payroll errors
through miscommunication and/or lack of
documentation, as described below:

• For 3 of 3 (100%) employees tested, the
Commission did not maintain personnel
files with adequate documentation
regarding salary. Specifically, the files
lacked documentation for salary
adjustments as well as lacked several
required documents needed to perform
testing related to gross pay, pension
contributions, pay grades, or pay steps.

• For 1 of 1 (100%) part-time employees
tested, the Commission was unable to
provide documentation of time worked;
therefore, we were unable to determine
whether the employee should have been
awarded personal, sick, or vacation time.

• For 2 of 3 (67%) employees tested, the
Commission did not compute accrued
balances of leave time in accordance with
the Commission's policies.

• For 2 of 3 (67%) employees tested,
vacation leave time was not pre-approved
according to policy. Leave was approved
between 2 and 5 days late.

While performing recalculations of
payroll, we noted the following:

• For 3 of 3 (100%) employees tested, the
Commission did not compute employee
payroll deductions correctly based on
employee payroll documentation. We noted
errors in the amount withheld for State
and Federal Taxes.

• For 1 of 3 (33%) employees tested, the
Commission did not maintain the State W-4
Employee's Withholding Certificate form on
file to support the withholding taxes
during the period. As a result, we were
unable to recalculate the employee’s state
withholding taxes.

While performing testing of payroll
vouchers, we noted the following:

• For 2 of 10 (20%) payroll vouchers
tested, totaling $44,062, no approval
signature or date was documented on the
voucher; therefore, we could not determine
if the voucher was properly approved and
processed.

• For 1 of 10 (10%) payroll vouchers
tested, totaling $1,464, we were unable to
trace the voucher to the Commission’s
expenditure records.

While performing testing of Agency
Workforce Reports, we noted the following:

• The Commission did not submit its Fiscal
Year 2023 (filed in FY24) and Fiscal Year
2024 (filed in FY25) Agency Workforce
Reports with the Office of the Secretary
of State.

• The Commission’s Fiscal Year 2023 Report
contained five instances and the
Commission’s Fiscal Year 2024 Report
contained two instances where the reported
amounts and percentages were not
calculated accurately.  (Finding 1, pages
8-12)

We recommended the Commission strengthen
its internal controls over personal
services to ensure proper documentation
and personnel files are maintained
correctly and reports are accurately
filed.

The Commission accepted the recommendation
and stated it has begun the process to
correct many of these issues by
undertaking a major overhaul of the
employee manual and implementing
procedures in accordance with policies.

OTHER FINDINGS

The remaining finding pertains to
weaknesses in the Commission’s
Cybersecurity and the Security and Control
of Confidential Information. We will
review the Commission’s progress towards
the implementation of our recommendations
in our next State compliance examination.

ACCOUNTANT’S OPINION

The accountants conducted a State
compliance examination of the Commission
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 Commission complied, in all
material respects, with the requirements
described in the report.

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

COURTNEY DZIERWA
Deputy Auditor General

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

CHRISTOPHER B. MEISTER
Auditor General

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