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December 4, 2024

Auditor General Frank Mautino MUST resign

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On August 16, 2016

Sangamon Co. (ECWd) –

A vast majority of our time is spent researching public information to find deficiencies and violations of law.  Once found we expose them and demand accountability to the law and correcting of deficiencies.

In 2014, former Auditor General Holland’s office published the Financial Audit for the Illinois Capital Development Board.  It is rather telling, to put it mildly.

  • Number of Findings: “Current report – 7”  “Prior report -9”
  • Repeated findings: “Current report – 5”  “Prior report -6”
  • Prior recommendations implemented: “Current report – 4”  “Prior report – 2”

So there is no confusion, the 2014 audit reflected 7 Findings! Remember that as we will make our case for Mautino’s resignation shortly!

Findings, of which all were listed as Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency:

  • Inadequate Control over Revenue and Receipts
  • Failure to Publish Required Procurement Information
  • Inadequate Control over Property and Equipment
  • Performance Evaluations Not Completed
  • Untimely Approval and Payment of Vouchers
  • Untimely Approval and Payment of Vouchers
  • Failure to File Required Affidavits with the Auditor General for Single Prime Construction Projects

You can read the full report at this link and prepare yourself as it will give you an idea as to how bad things are in this state.

A review of the 2015 audit report shows it was completed December 8th, of 2015.  The state database reflects it was published by Frank Mautino’s office January 14, 2016.

Now before everyone jumps on the wagon to defend Mautino on this, hear me out.  This report was “released” by Auditor General Frank Mautino, which most would agree, means it had been vetted for accuracy.  I know any report I am going to release as the person in charge is going to be validated as correct and considering he has a whole staff of people, you would think they could have caught what I caught!

Keep in mind I am not an accountant.  How is it possible for the 2015 Audit that his office released reflects the CDB had ZERO  findings in the previous audit (2014) when in fact, they had 7 and they were all classified as Noncompliance and Significant Deficiency findings?

No, Frank Mautino was not in charge when the 2015 audit was performed, however, as the head of the State Agency, was it asking too much to at least validate the summary report that claimed there were no prior findings?  That’s all I did and it took all of 5 minutes to compare the claimed no prior findings in the summary to the actual prior audit findings, thus invalidating the summary provided to the taxpayers of Illinois.

I am confident a person with real audit experience would have caught such a  mistake and never released the report without correcting the misinformation. Is this another sign that Frank Mautino is unfit for his post?

Why do we believe so?  Because the Audit Digest provides Frank Mautino’s name and opinion.

AUDITORS’ OPINION – “Our special assistant auditors stated the Capital Development Board’s financial statements as of and for the year ended June 30, 2015 are fairly presented in all material respects.”
FRANK J. MAUTINO
Auditor General  – Click here for report bearing Auditor General Frank Mautino’s name

I suggest Frank Mautino demand a refund from the firm hired to do the audit as they missed a whopper if they are responsible for the summary report.  I also suggest Frank Mautino take responsibility for this failure and resign as it’s clear, his name is on this report and he assured the taxpayers of this state the financial report fairly presented all material respects and that is not true and anyone can confirm that by simply reading the reports.

Check back for exposure of more failings coming from the Auditor General’s Office.

 

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4 Comments
  • Pete Marwick
    Posted at 08:25h, 19 August

    I agree 100% that you are not an accountant and you only did 5 minutes of work. This was a financial statement audit only. The findings from 2014 were from the financial and compliance audit performed. The findings in 2014 were related to compliance. If you look at the 2013 financial audit summary you will see zero current year findings. That is why the 2015 report shows zero prior year findings. I’m not a Mautino supporter, but cannot fault him for following the reporting rules. Consider taking 10 minutes next time or ask someone with experience in the field.

    • Kirk Allen
      Posted at 08:46h, 19 August

      I appreciate the clarification/comparison. However the 2013 report you referenced does point to findings, just not significant ones.
      “no significant exceptions were noted on our review” appears to imply that there were in fact exceptions (findings) noted, just not significant.

      We will work on publishing a separate article and update accordingly, along with other discrepancies we are finding in these audits.

  • Arthur Andersen
    Posted at 23:06h, 18 August

    Your observations above are spot-on. Another dimension to the problem is the audit firm contracted to do the audit. They have only been around for four years. They are certified in various public jurisdictions in Illinois as either a minority-owned, woman-owned, and disadvantaged business enterprise. Many firms in these programs turn out excellent work; a few, not so much. The OAG Audit Manager appears to have dropped the ball on oversight and mentoring. May be worth a bit of your time to check them out.

  • Little Miss "Don't believe anything they say without proof"
    Posted at 21:33h, 16 August

    Interesting. I wonder how many others are signed by him as accurate which are not.

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