As Chairman of the House Committee on Human Services, I have called hearings this Friday along with the State Government and Administration Committee into a report of the Executive Inspector General and the DCFS Inspector General which details the perpetration of “large-scale fraud” against numerous state agencies from 2008-2011 in the range of $18 million. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in the 6th Floor Joint House Senate Hearing Room of the Bilandic State Office Building. The Hearing Notice can be found here: http://ilga.gov/house/committees/hearing.asp?CommitteeID=893&GA=97
Live audio and video feeds of the Hearing should be available on the day of the Hearing at this location: http://ilga.gov/house/audvid.asp
This fraud is especially worrying given its size, duration and scope across many different departments of State Government, which show both a failure of individuals and a failure of systems to adequately oversee grant programs and detect ongoing fraud and abuse over a period of years. According to the report of the Inspectors General, the $18 million in fraud detected so far were perpetrated by one individual and his affiliated companies and entities doing business through multiple state agencies.
The nature of the fraud included forgery, improper payment and excessive funds for unknown services, billing for administrative expenses in excess of legal limits, ghost employees, suspicious and fraudulent grant reports and falsified credentials, among others.
Among agencies involved according to the Inspectors General were the Department of Children and Family Services, the DHS Department of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, the Illinois State Board of Education, Department of Public Health, Chicago State University.
At a time when the State is struggling to pay the bills of legitimate vendors and ensure the delivery of critically needed services to the public, it is especially grave that the lack of control and oversight allowed abuse of this scope and duration to occur. I believe we must thoroughly investigate the failures that allowed this particular fraud to happen, the failures that allowed it to proceed for years, and the failures of systems and controls to detect or report the substantial irregularities. We must also look at how systems and controls are being investigated to determine if similar frauds are or have been perpetrated by others, and how systems and procedures are being changed to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
I, along with State Government Committee Chairman Jack Franks, have invited the Executive Inspector General and the Inspector General of DCFS to attend and present the findings of their investigation, corrective actions taken, their recommendations to prevent future similar wrongdoings, and their observations as to whether departments have begun to effectively implement those recommendations. We have invited the Departments and agencies named in the report to be present and testify as well. I have also invited the Office of the Attorney General to report on their efforts to recover these funds on behalf of the People of Illinois.
I take the revelations of the Inspector General very seriously, and want to thank them for identifying the abuses detailed in this report. I also believe it is our duty to be sure that every circumstance identified in these reports that allowed such abuses to thrive are eliminated, and that State agencies are looking seriously to see if other similar abuses could have been exploited. As well, we need to learn from this situation to improve controls and information sharing within and across agencies/departments so that future incidents will be less likely to occur.
You can read the entire report and see all the exhibits here: http://www2.illinois.gov/oeig/Documents/10-01182_McEwen_et%20al._10.17.11.pdf
As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome. I can be reached in Chicago at 773 348-3434, in Springfield at 217 782 3835 or by email at greg@gregharris.org
