REPORT DIGEST

WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

FINANCIAL AUDIT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2020

Release Date:  June 16, 2021

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT:  1

CATEGORY:  NEW -- REPEAT -- TOTAL
Category 1:  1 -- 0 -- 1
Category 2:  0 -- 0 -- 0
Category 3:  0 -- 0 -- 0
TOTAL:  1 -- 0 -- 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 the Western Illinois
University’s Financial Audit as of and
for the year ended June 30, 2020.  The
Western Illinois University’s Compliance
Examination (including the Single Audit)
covering the year ended June 30, 2020
will be issued at a later date.

SYNOPSIS

• (20-01) 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.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

INADEQUATE INTERNAL CONTROLS OVER CENSUS
DATA

The Western Illinois University
(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.

During testing, some of the more
significant issues we noted included the
following:
• The University had not performed an
initial complete reconciliation of its
census data recorded by SURS and CMS to
its internal records to establish a base
year of complete and accurate data.

• The University did not have a process
to ensure its employees who worked
between 4 to 4.5 months were enrolled in
SURS.

• As of the end of the census data
accumulation year on June 30, 2018, we
identified 14 employees where each
employee’s associated termination or
rehire date(s) had been untimely reported
to SURS. While these employees were all
associated with the University at June
30, 2018, some or all of these untimely
reports may have occurred at other public
universities and community colleges
across the State. SURS determined these
errors resulted in the employees being
misclassified between the active,
retired, and inactive member categories
within SURS. The total potential impact
to each former employee’s total service
credit was it could be off between 0.0
and 1.75 years. (Finding 1, pages 61-65)
We recommended the University implement
controls to ensure census data events are
timely and accurately reported to SURS
and CMS. Further, we recommended the
University work with SURS and CMS to
develop an annual reconciliation process
of its active members’ census data from
its underlying records to a report from
each plan of census data submitted to the
plan’s actuary.

Management agrees with the finding and
plans to implement multiple controls to
correct the audit finding.   WIU Human
Resource functions have been consolidated
in Fiscal Year 2020, creating greater
accountability for employee communication
and following internal policies. In
addition, as the State provides
information, the University team will
work diligently to establish a new
baseline of census data related to SURS
and CMS. Once this baseline is
established, an annual reconciliation
process will be created and enacted
moving forward.

AUDITOR’S OPINION

The auditors stated the financial
statements of the University as of and
for the year ended June 30, 2020, are
fairly stated in all material respects.

This financial audit was conducted by
Adelfia, LLC.

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

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