Today’s quotable
Friday, May 15, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
A report from the state auditor’s office has found more than $321,000 was paid for services to dead people through a program in the Illinois Department of Aging. […]
The audit released Thursday from the Illinois Office of the Auditor General says the funds went for senior citizen services in the department’s Community Care Program last year. It also says another $38,000 was paid for services to incarcerated people.
OK, this is a serious story and somebody could be in big trouble, but check out this last line…
Auditors recommend stricter controls be placed on the program to prevent dead or imprisoned people from receiving services in the future.
Somehow, I’m thinking that the dead and the jailed didn’t actually receive any services.
Anyway, the audit is a doozy. Go read it. Whew.
- BlameBruceRauner - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:32 am:
Service for the dead and incarcerated means gambling money for somebody. Somebody or many somebodies thought nobody would ever come looking, wrong. Prosecutions are likely if there is a paper trial to individuals. Crime doesn’t pay people. If it isn’t yours don’t think you can take it. Simple rules to live by, but time and again greed wins.
- Downstate Illinois - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:44 am:
Maybe one of the services provided was voter registration.
- A Jack - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:47 am:
Slightly off topic, but why are we hiring an Iowa based CPA firm for this audit? It seems like if we want to grow Illinois jobs, there are firms here that could be hired.
- Anonymous - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:52 am:
All the CPAs in Illinois are corrupt.
- A Jack - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:54 am:
I agree that many programs require stricter controls, but that requires IT resources to build those interfaces. The state is short on IT resources. Why? Because IT personnel can make more money just about anywhere than state government.
- Anon. - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:55 am:
Downstate beat me to it. I was going to ask if this was another “using state funds to get out the vote” scandal.
- NoGifts - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 10:58 am:
360k in bad payments out of $881 million? That’s an error rate of 0.04% which seems not that bad to me. Everyone should be careful, but we should also keep reasonable standards.
- Wensicia - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 11:02 am:
Service providers don’t want any reduction in funding, so they’re not going to report the deceased they’re no longer serving.
- Anonymous - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 11:08 am:
Yawn. Did you actually read the report?
- A guy - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 11:42 am:
Let me guess; they’re all good voters too!/s
- VanillaMan - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 12:06 pm:
When will the Department of Aging realize that the citizens they serve die throughout each day, requiring an ability to quickly modify their work? It’s the 21st century. There is really no technological excuses. This is just sloppy.
- A guy - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 12:28 pm:
Really V-Man, no excuse for this one. There is a database no one can avoid where Death Certificates are promptly entered. No reason this one doesn’t have oversight on an “up to the minute” basis.
- LTSW - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
That database is not “up to the minute” its at least 3 months behind.
- DuPage - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 12:43 pm:
It looks like much of the problem had to do with outside contractors not keeping up to date records, and the state not checking up on the contractors. When contractors are based on “low bid” the actual people doing the work are cut to the bone. This would require more vendor people and IT investment to better keep everything up to date. With the state being many months behind in paying vendors, they generally are extra short-staffed in an effort to stay in business while waiting for the state to pay them.
Someone once said it is a good practice to spend $10 to correct and save $100 in billing errors, but it is not a good practice to spend $100 dollars to correct and save $10 in billing errors.
- A guy - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 12:51 pm:
===LTSW - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
That database is not “up to the minute” its at least 3 months behind.===
Certificates of Death are entered in real time. Ask any Funeral Director who’s had to stand there waiting for them. No one gets buried or cremated without one.
No one. It’s a meticulous process. Not sure what you’re referring to taking 3 months. DC’s are not hand written receipts.
- Arizona Bob - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 1:01 pm:
Of course the biggest question is what really happened to the money if it didn’t go to the listed recipient. Funeral directors are pretty good at notifying Social Security and cutting off payments, unless someone is paying them not to for a cut. I really haven’t seen that happen, though. There may be indictments here eventually. If the workers claimed they provided services billed for it or put it on their timesheets, that’s fraud.
- A guy - Friday, May 15, 15 @ 2:27 pm:
AB, it’s not up to a funeral director to notify Social Security. It’s up to the family or guardian.