State & Local Reports

The audit examined the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT’s) Millbury roadway reconstruction and related work for the period September 3, 2015 through June 30, 2020.

What Was Performed? An examination of the Milford School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. Were viewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Milford School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expenditures and tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by Title 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings.All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs. The examination of the Milford School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.

What Was Performed? An examination of the Lake Forest School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. We reviewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Lake Forest School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expendituresand tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by Title 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings. All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.The examination of the Lake Forest School District’s Career and Technical Education fundsfor fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.

On May 6, 2021, an equipment failure at the Roseland Pumping Station (RPS) caused pressure in the water main to drop, requiring the Department of Water Management (DWM) to issue a 24-hour water-boil order for much of the 19th Ward in the RPS service area––spanning from Albany Avenue to the west, 119th Street to the south, and west of Interstate 57 to southwest Beverly Avenue. The resulting boil order affected residents of the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods.On May 25, 2021, failure of the same type of equipment caused a second power outage at the facility which did not result in a boil order but exacerbated concerns about the facility, resulting in media reports and a formal aldermanic request that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigate what had become a matter of ongoing public concern.OIG examined the issues at RPS, which included interviewing a City vendor and City and ComEd officials, as well as reviewing emails and records. On the basis of the information provided, OIG has concluded that the root of the May 6, 2021 and May 25, 2021 issues was a City equipment failure inside the station––namely, a rented uninterruptible power supply (UPS) unit installed in 2018 and a temporary replacement installed after the May 6th event.

What Was Performed? An examination of the Appoquinimink School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. We reviewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Appoquinimink School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expendituresand tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by Title 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings. All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.The examination of the Appoquinimink School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, can be found on our website.

This audit examined if MTRS ensured that members received their first pension payments within established timeframes and promptly identified deceased retirees and beneficiaries and subsequently adjusted or terminated benefit payments accurately in accordance with state laws. The audit examined the period July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2019.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit of City Council committee spending and employee administration. Council committees review proposed legislation within their defined subject matter areas and vote on whether to recommend its passage by the full Council, hold hearings (both on specific ordinances and on more general topics related to municipal governance), and process some administrative matters via legislation, such as permits for sidewalk cafés and business awnings. Each committee has its own budget in the City’s annual appropriations ordinance.The objectives of the audit were to determine whether Council committees:comply with Municipal Code of Chicago (MCC) § 2-8-071 regarding employee recordkeeping; andcomply with the City’s annual appropriations ordinance regarding committee expenditures and use of committee staff.Some City Council committees have not maintained complete employee records in accord with the records retention requirements of MCC § 2-8-071 and the Illinois Local Records Act, 50 ILCS 205/1, et seq. In addition, some committee personnel perform non-committee duties, notwithstanding state and municipal requirements that governments spend appropriated funds only for their designated purposes. Regarding committee spending, while OIG identified 29 committee non-personnel expenditures for non-committee purposes between January 2015 and July 2019, Council and the Department of Finance have since implemented improved operational and review processes to effectively mitigate the risk of such payments.OIG requested 16 months of employee attendance records, randomly selected from June 2015 through March 2020, from the five City Council committees with the largest budgets. While the five committees provided employee records for the current legislative term, only one provided complete records for the previous term. The remaining four committees included three with no employee attendance records for 13 of the 16 months and one with no records for 9 months and only partial records for 4 months. All four of these committees use paper-based employee attendance records. The current chairs were unable to provide the majority of the records OIG requested because they were kept by previous committee chairs and not transferred when the current chairs took over in 2019. The failure to maintain these records constitutes noncompliance with both MCC § 2-8-071 and the Illinois Local Records Act, which requires municipalities to maintain records and to destroy them only after approval by the Local Records Act Commission. The fifth committee, which provided complete records, uses the City’s electronic time and attendance system.In addition, from the total of 13 committees OIG reviewed, 7 City Council committee chairs directed or allowed committee employees to work on non-committee matters, including tasks related to the chairs’ wards. This practice constitutes noncompliance with the state and municipal requirements that governmental entities expend appropriated funds only for their designated purposes. It also results in the diversion of resources appropriated to serve Council as a whole and may create inequalities between wards by effectively giving some aldermen disproportionally more resources for their non-committee work.Lastly, OIG identified 29 non-personnel committee expenditures totaling $35,895 made for non-committee purposes. However, by July 2019, City Council and the Department of Finance had improved operational and review processes to effectively mitigate the risk of such impermissible payments.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a second audit of the Chicago Fire Department’s (CFD) fire and emergency medical response times. The first audit was published in 2013.The objectives of the audit were to determine if,CFD has goals for fire and emergency medical services (EMS) response times consistent with state and national standards; andCFD response times meet state and national standards.OIG concluded that CFD has not implemented performance management strategies that would allow it to evaluate fire and EMS response times in alignment with best practices. Nor has the Department remedied data issues identified in 2013.OIG found that CFD has not implemented best practices for measuring response times. CFD does not produce annual department-wide reports that would allow it to evaluate response times, and it does not measure turnout and travel as separate components of response time or use industry-standard percentile measures. Notably, we recommended in 2013 that CFD correct these issues.OIG further found that CFD has not documented response time performance goals outside of its state-required EMS plan. CFD documented its overall EMS response time goal as required by state law. However, the Department has not documented fire response time goals. Contrary to best practices, CFD has not set goals for turnout or travel time at the industry-standard 90th percentile. Here, again, we recommended in 2013 that CFD set and document such goals.OIG also found that CFD’s data is not adequate to allow reliable measurement of response time. We analyzed records for emergency events from January 1, 2018 to November 30, 2020, finding that only 705,061 of 937,446 (75.2%) included data for all categories necessary to calculate turnout and travel times for the first arriving unit. CFD acknowledges that it has been aware of data reliability issues since at least 2013, but has not remedied them.

What Was Performed? An examination of the Cape Henlopen School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. We reviewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Cape Henlopen School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expendituresand tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings. All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.The examination of the Cape Henlopen School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.

What Was Performed? An examination of the Laurel School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. We reviewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Laurel School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expenditures and tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings. All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.The examination of the Laurel School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.