Audit finds one Kane County employee received a $22,000 ‘perk’ last year

GENEVA – A just-released audit of Kane County purchasing card transactions for the 2019-20 fiscal year found $22,000 was paid as a “perk” to a single employee, which led to a deeper search that showed $58,112 in purchasing card transactions over the past four years without supporting documentation.

Kane County Auditor Penny Wegman recommended in the audit that the County Board ask for outside counsel to do an investigation.

The information was turned over to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office, Human Resources and Board member Chris Kious, D-Algonquin, who is chairman of the Administration Committee, the audit stated. Kious said he has not seen the report and could not comment.

Wegman said she could not comment and directed questions to the Kane County Board or State’s Attorney’s Office. State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser’s office did not immediately return an email message.

Kane County Board Chairwoman Corinne Pieorg said what has been presented by the auditor would be discussed in closed session during an Executive Committee meeting Aug. 4.

“I can say ... most of the concerns are unfounded from documentation I have received – but that is yet to be proven,” Pierog said. “They all (the purchases) occurred during a previous administration. The documents she (Wegman) called into question appear to be in proper protocol and approved by the previous board and administration.”

County Board Vice Chairman Kenneth Shepro, R-Wayne, said it was his experience under a previous administration for the auditor to release findings first to the board chair and department heads for comment before they were made public.

“It does not appear that that happened in this case,” Shepro said.

Wegman said she stands by her audit as presented.

“We worked with the Purchasing Department for our recommendations,” Wegman said.

Wegman’s staff did the audit of 4,562 transactions among 79 procurement cards held by the county’s various departments. In that fiscal year, just over $1 million was spent via procurement cards, according to the audit.

Purchasing cards – also known as procurement or p-cards – are credit cards the county issues to elected offices and departments to use for purchases without having to go through a purchase order procedure.

The audit covered purchasing card transactions for the 2019-20 fiscal year, which goes from Dec. 1, 2019 to Nov. 30, 2020, Wegman had said earlier this month when the audit was in process.

Wegman had said the audit was done because of the transition to a new administration and because the last one was done in 2014 for the years 2012 and 2013.

However, the new audit does not reveal who the procurement card was assigned to, nor the identity of the employee who benefited from the $22,000 “perk.”

But the audit states that the $22,000 was paid in six installments and identifies that amount being paid to DeVry University.

That payment prompted Wegman’s staff to expand their search criteria. They found “an additional nine procurement card transactions and two paid directly to a vendor outside the scope of 2020,” the audit stated.

“Over a four-year period, these 17 transactions totaled $58,112,” the audit stated. “The Auditor’s Office did not receive supporting documentation that provided the proper authority to authorize the above transactions.”

In the report, Wegman recommended that procurement card financial policies be updated and modified to ensure procurement card holders comply with county guidelines.

The majority of the procurement cards, 22, are assigned to the Sheriff’s Office; nine to the Circuit Clerk; six to Information Technologies; five to the State’s Attorney; four to Court Services; three each to Building Management, Coroner, Judiciary/Courts and Public Defender; two each to the County Clerk, Development, Emergency Management and the Juvenile Justice Center.

One each are assigned to Animal Control, Community Reinvestment, County Board, Employment and Education, Environmental Resources, Health, KaneComm, Law Library, Purchasing, Transportation, Veteran’s Commission and Water Resources, according to the audit.

Information Technology spent the most, $287,467 over 816 transactions. The Sheriff’s Office spent the next-highest amount, $272,382 over 1,205 transactions, with the rest ranging from $92,149 to $1,580, according to the audit.

The top vendor was Amazon, at $257,586 with 1,324 purchases.

The $22,000 paid to DeVry was among the top 10 vendors, which included Best Buy, Pay Pal and Walmart, according to the audit.

The full audit is available by visiting kanecountyauditor.com.