Letter to Editor – FIPHD Audit

ECWd –

The $50,000 forensic audit is completed for the failed Ford-Iroquois Health Department.  It shows procurement laws were  circumvented (bid rigging), grant monies spent for purposes other than they were intended (grant fraud), double billing charges to the retirement fund to the tune of more than $100,000 and more.
It cost tax payers $50,000 to find out exactly what the Edgar County Watchdogs had uncovered for free.  So why did we need this expensive audit?
The reason is that the health department board refused to accept any facts presented to them by the watchdog group.  Then, the Ford County Board refused to accept the information even though they were directly responsible for overseeing half of the health department board members.
In effect every single Ford County Board member hid  the ineptitude and cover-ups underway by their appointees, and the criminality apparent from this audit.
The Ford County Board members had no opponents in their districts to run against them.  But the facts revealed in this scathing audit show a pattern of abuses that squarely oppose any notion they have done a good job managing our county’s money.
As with any other county department, the ultimate blame goes to the elected officials who stonewalled at the county board.  Chicago politics has a farm team that plays its game in Paxton.
Rich Porter
Paxton