REPORT DIGEST

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

FINANCIAL AUDIT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2022

Release Date:  March 30, 2023

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT: 1

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

FINDINGS LAST AUDIT: 1

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

INTRODUCTION

This digest covers Southern Illinois
University’s (University) Financial
Audit as of and for the year ended
June 30, 2022.  A digest covering the
University’s Single Audit was
separately issued.  In addition, a
separate digest covering the
University’s Compliance Examination
for the year ended June 30, 2022 will
be issued at a later date.

SYNOPSIS

• (22-1) The University did not have
adequate internal control over
reporting its census data and did not
have a reconciliation process to
provide assurance census data
submitted to its pension and other
postemployment benefits plans was
complete and accurate.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

INADEQUATE INTERNAL CONTROLS OVER
CENSUS DATA

The University did not have adequate
internal control over reporting its
census data and did not have a
reconciliation process to provide
assurance census data submitted to its
pension and other postemployment
benefits (OPEB) plans was complete and
accurate. We noted the following:

• The University had not performed an
initial complete reconciliation of its
census data recorded by the Sate
University Retirement System (SURS) to
its internal records to establish a
base year of complete and accurate
census data.

• After establishing a base year, the
University had not developed a process
to annually obtain from SURS the
incremental changes recorded by SURS
in their census data records and
reconcile these changes back to the
University’s internal supporting
records.

• During our cut-off testing of data
transmitted by the University to SURS,
we noted 117 instances of an active
employee becoming inactive or part-
time, 2 instances of an inactive
employee becoming active, and 1
instance of an inactive employee
becoming retired were reported to SURS
after the close of the fiscal year in
which the event occurred.  There were
also 2 instances previously reported
that impacted the June 30, 2020 census
data.

• During our testing of instructor
eligibility testing, we noted 3 of
2,007 instructors tested were not
reported as eligible to participate in
SURS by the University. There were
also 10 instances previously reported
that impacted the June 30, 2020 census
data. (Finding 1, pages 7-9).  This
finding has been reported since 2020.

We recommended the University continue
to work with SURS to complete the base
year reconciliation of Fiscal Year
2021 active members’ census date from
its underlying records to a report of
census data submitted to SURS’ actuary
and Central Management Services’ (CMS)
actuary. After completing an initial
full reconciliation, the University
may limit the annual reconciliations
to focus on the incremental changes to
the census data file from the prior
actuarial valuation, provided no risks
are identified that incomplete or
inaccurate reporting of census data
may have occurred during prior
periods. Any errors identified during
this process should be promptly
corrected by either the University or
SURS, with the impact of these errors
communicated to both SURS’ actuary and
CMS’ actuary.  Further, we recommended
the University ensure all events
occurring within a census data
accumulation year are timely reported
to SURS so these events can be
incorporated into the census data
provided to SURS’ actuary and CMS’
actuary. Finally, we recommended the
University ensure all eligible
employees are reported to SURS, along
with any required employee and
employer contributions.

University officials agreed with the
finding and stated the campuses have
now completed the base year
reconciliation and continue to work to
automate the process going forward.

AUDITOR’S OPINION

The auditors stated the financial
statements of the University as of and
for the year ended June 30, 2022 are
fairly stated in all material
respects.

This financial audit was conducted by
Plante & Moran PLLC.

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:LKW