Late audit means no payment on 54 grants to La Salle County

A La Salle County audit for 2023 is past due, and Springfield has halted payment on 54 grants, county officials said at a meeting.

Brian Dose, D-Ottawa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said Tuesday that he was alerted Sept. 26 that the county was placed on the stop payment list for the state of Illinois. He confirmed this Tuesday and was advised that once the county compiled and completed the necessary audit paperwork, the grant monies would be released.

In a statement, Dose said he “was concerned why the County Board was not made aware of the situation by the auditor.” (For Dose’s full statement)

“This leads to concerns about transparency with our financial situation,” he said. “If I had not gotten the email from the outside auditor, we would have very likely not known.

“While we can point fingers, it is irrelevant. We have to make sure that internally, there is no reason there should be any delay. Most of our delays are from internal departments not completing needed grant information and putting the responsibility solely on the auditor’s office. That isn’t fair to the auditor’s office. They are checking for compliance, not everyday grant management.

“Further, the whole grant administration problem shows a general lack of coordination and communication between the various county departments.”

Auditor Stephanie Jo Thompson released her own statement taking issue with Dose’s statement of facts and for politicizing the issue. (For Thompson’s full statement)

“As Mr. Dose stated, we are on a stop pay,” Thompson said. “However, no services in the county will be affected by that stop pay as he mentioned [Tuesday] morning. The stop pay will be removed by the 18th of October. We are not the only county currently on a stop pay due to late audits.

“We were also on a stop pay in 2021, but that was not an election year.”

One emerging consensus view is that the county’s previous auditing firm left the county in an enviable position. Board member Doug Trager, D-Ottawa, inquired about the possibility of legal action.

“They’ve got us in a mess as far as I’m concerned. I have no qualms about saying that,” Trager said. “And I’d like to know if we can take legal action to recover some of those costs.”

La Salle County State’s Attorney Joe Navarro wouldn’t rule out litigation. The county would need an expert witness to ascertain whether the former auditor followed accepted practices and, if not, what financial consequences this would have had for the county.

“That’s certainly something we can look into,” Navarro said.