Here is the auditor general’s report digest for the CMS audit.

And here is the AP story about the audit.

More later and tomorrow.

UPDATE 1: I’ll get into this much more in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax, but here’s a little nugget.

According to the auditor general, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and CMS took millions from the Illinois Department of Transportation and other agencies that it was not entitled to.

The Department failed to adequately determine the amount of savings it expected State agencies to realize when billing for savings initiatives. This resulted in a majority of State agencies being over billed – i.e., they were billed more for savings initiatives than Department documentation showed the agencies had realized in savings.

During FY04 the Department billed State agencies $137 million for efficiency initiatives for: procurement, information technology, vehicle fleet management, facilities management consolidation, internal audit consolidation, and legal research consolidation.

Department documentation showed that there were 4 “Winners” and 35 “Losers” from the efforts of the procurement efficiency initiative.

The Department did not maintain adequate documentation to support the validation of many of the savings which the Department attributes to its various efficiency initiatives. […]

In November 2004, the Department provided documentation on the “Winners and Losers” from the procurement efficiency initiative. For instance, CMS billed the Department of Transportation (IDOT) $17,061,200 during FY04 but CMS documentation showed that IDOT only saved $1,232,179 from the procurement efficiency initiative. Likewise, the Department of Revenue (DOR) was billed $4,321,900 during FY04 but only saved $238,302 from the procurement efficiency initiative. In total, Department documentation showed that there were 4 “Winners” and 35 “Losers” from the efforts of the procurement efficiency initiative. (Emphasis added.)

UPDATE 2: IPAM, the company which was supposed to save the state money, didn’t (More in the fax).

Also, check out who that same vendor took to a basketball game:

Parking reimbursed for the United Center on February 17, 2004. The Chicago Bulls had a home basketball game on that date. The detailed support indicated two names on the parking receipt, a vendor employee and the Department official responsible for monitoring the contract… (emphasis added)

That Bulls parking was reimbursed by CMS. Your money.

UPDATE 3: What exactly did this company do?

In the original IPAM proposal, IPAM would perform all facility condition assessments on 50 million sq. ft. of State-owned buildings. Within its BAFO, IPAM decreased its price but also proposed that facility managers (to be hired for the facility management consolidation process) and not IPAM would perform the condition assessments on the last 40 million square feet. However, on February 4, 2005, the Department published in the Procurement Bulletin a sole source $2.25 million contract for IPAM to perform facility condition assessments.

UPDATE 4: CMS refuses to take its medicine and has harsh words for Auditor General Holland. Holland responds:

CMS continues to misunderstand and, in some instances, mischaracterize our findings.

UPDATE 5: Here’s what CMS had to say about the audit (They’re gonna regret this complaining. Reporters love the auditor general.):

(Click on the image for a larger view.)