Magic phrase returns: ‘Forensic audit’
Tuesday, Feb 11, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Center Square…
State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, said he wants a real time forensic audit of Illinois spending, especially with a looming $3 billion state budget deficit.
* Almost 15 years ago, then Illinois Auditor General Bill Holland testified on Republican legislation that would’ve required him to conduct a complete forensic audit of Illinois government. Here’s some of what he said…
How large would a forensic audit be? It would be immense. It would be an immense undertaking. It will take a lot of money and a lot of time.
The way the resolution is drafted, it calls for all transactions. I mean, this is a problematic resolution for me. I’m flattered that there would be such confidence in my office to think that we can do this, but my office has never done a forensic audit in 18 years, never done one.
And there’s a reason for that, if I can come to at the end, but there are three significant problems that would that I would be faced with. The first one is the word ‘all’ in the resolution ‘all transactions.’ Now, utilizing the records that we could get from the comptroller’s office that he has on his ‘Service, Efforts and Accomplishments’ reports, there are 15 million transactions a year, 15 million transactions a year, and I would be asked to do a forensic audit Of all of those transactions for nine years pursuant to the resolution.
That’s 135 million transactions. 135 million transactions. Can’t emphasize that enough, going back nine years. I mean, I don’t even know if all the records exist for nine years.
It would be just trying to collect the data before you could perform a forensic audit, which presupposes some type of criminal litigation, some type of ‘We’re going to court because we want to get you.’ Now with 135 million transactions, and if you start calculating what the hourly rate would be and the amount of work you got to do to look at each transaction, to look at each transaction, to look at each hiring, which is called for in the resolution, there are probably 25,000 people have been hired since 2001, to go back and determine why each person was hired, who the sponsor was, who the sponsor was and was the person qualified. And to go back and try and obtain records from nine years ago would be an immense, a gigantic, an astronomical number.
We would be talking literally in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And I hate to use numbers that big, because they sound like they’re disjointed, but the number is huge and the number of years it would take.
But probably the biggest problem that I would be faced with is that I would still have to do the annual financial and compliance audits for the agencies that I currently audit. Now I would be going down on a railroad with with two rails, one a forensic audit, which presupposes criminal activity, and one a regular financial and compliance audit. And I would probably be dealing with much with most of the same people at the same time.
Miller’s (no relation) resolution would require the Auditor General to “conduct a forensic audit of all State spending, hiring, procurement, and contracts awarded from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2024. So, not nine years like the old one, but two. Even so, we’re looking at maybe 30 million transactions (and likely much more after 15 years) which would each have to be looked at individually?
Magic phrases, magic beans. Same thing.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:11 am:
Um, every agency is already audited.
- H-W - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:14 am:
Perhaps when Czar Musk actually performs a real forensic audit of USAID and the Department of Education, we can then determine what such an audit would require. Currently, it only requires a few buzzwords like “AI” and Fox Entertainment Media and New Nation. /s
- lake county democrat - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:14 am:
I’ll see your magic beans and raise them:
Just have AI do the audit.
- Squib Kick - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:27 am:
I bet the House could get bipartisan support for a forensic audit of all of Rep. Miller’s district office spending.
- Lefty Lefty - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:29 am:
Many Republican leaders - and their supporters - are not serious people, at least as far as their approach to governance goes. I guess Rep, Miller could be serious when he calls Democrats “dangerous…terrorists”* but he doesn’t seem to be interested in governance.
I work with 2 massive state agencies through my firm - IDOT and IEPA. Do you know what comes up as often as compliance and project management questions in my work with them? “The auditors.” State staff is hyperconscious of doing the numbers correctly, sometimes to the detriment of the project.
* https://x.com/MarkMaxwellTV/status/1347236821512695810
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:31 am:
Maybe ask Chris to ask Mary to ask Elon to do this when he finishes with the federal government in a few weeks?
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:32 am:
Performative actions at their silliest. If you have something specific just say it, otherwise trolling for mistakes is just pathetic.
- Ryan - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:34 am:
Maybe Elon’s bro-coders could come in and do it…
- Appears - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:35 am:
I wish that a lot of State Reps worked as hard and as competently as a lot of the State employees do. State employees are often asked to go over and above time and time again with limited (and sometimes almost nonexistent resources). A lot of State employees take pride in their work. It seems too many State Reps take more pride in their power than they do their work.
- dtownresident - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:43 am:
So should the auditing team be the BTIA 4.0 , DOGE Illinois, or Budget CZAR 2.0 ?
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 11:49 am:
“Many Republican leaders - and their supporters - are not serious people, at least as far as their approach to governance goes.”
Republicans should have a sign that says, Pardon our political stunts but we have to do it or someone more radical will primary us. Why would they engage in such wasteful (no pun intended) activity if their voters didn’t want it?
- Frida's Boss - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 12:05 pm:
Rep Miller is capable of sitting on the Appropriations committees and asking pertinent questions when the individual agencies come before them.
Asking to audit every single piece as a large blanket would require massive staff time and multiple outside contractors to achieve those audits. Depending on how many outside contractors you hire, it would also probably take well over a year.
So the rationale- let’s spend a bunch of money to look through Government spending and see where we are spending a bunch of money? Got it.
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 12:39 pm:
The data is public.
Center Square can do a “forensic audit” if they like.
I am sure someone will cut them a check to hire the staff, if needed.
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 12:49 pm:
==Many Republican leaders - and their supporters - are not serious people, at least as far as their approach to governance goes.==
And yet, as we can see with the Federal Gov’t, that not serious approach can have very serious consequences if allowed to go unchecked.
- Highland, IL - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 12:59 pm:
I nominate Tom Devore. He claims he was a forensic accountant before he became a lawyer and egg roll tycoon.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 1:10 pm:
If there was only a CPA who was a state senator who they could talk to about this….
Chris Lauzen a hopeful GOP looks to you….
- low level - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 1:32 pm:
== Um, every agency is already audited.==
That is exactly what I tell people. The City of Chicago as well; both are audited all the time Anyone who says otherwise simply doesnt know what they are talking about.
- Bob - Tuesday, Feb 11, 25 @ 1:56 pm:
I’m more convinced than ever that these people just phonetically repeat things they’ve heard in passing without ever understanding the words coming out of their mouths.