(IRN) Members from the Illinois Department of Public Health were in Springfield to answer to the Legislative Audit Commission about ongoing issues from during the pandemic.
The Illinois Auditor General report covers the two years that ended June 30, 2021, and reported a total of 31 findings.
The findings include a lack of proper patient care, a lack of control of agency entities and accounting issues.
Regarding government vehicles, which are paid for by the taxpayer, IDPH was “not able to provide the vehicle mileage log reports for six of 89 vehicles tested,” the report said.
“As such, we were not able to determine whether these vehicles were efficiently utilized for the specific operational needs of the Department, properly maintained, and the mileage properly reported,” the report said.
More issues within the department included a lack of control over contracts stating that “three of 34 interagency agreements tested, totaling $5,035,963, were not approved in writing by the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Fiscal Officer, and Chief Legal Counsel as required.”
IDPH was not able to provide a listing of all the contractual agreements they had entered into during the examination period, resulting in millions of dollars being unaccounted for.
“Thirteen of 34 interagency agreements tested, totaling $20,113,636, were executed subsequent to the performance of services. The agreement execution dates ranged from six to 304 days late,” the report said. “Additionally, two of 34 interagency agreements tested, totaling $3,860,159, were not signed by all the required parties. Further, the Department was not able to provide the executed agreements for two of 34 interagency agreements tested, totaling $725,805.”
State Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, said the department had shown no accountability and that those within the department provided false records.
“It looks like on some of these, everybody was just doing what they wanted to do, and they later made up for the documentation. Some of which was way late,” Elik said. “Clearly, they went back and went, ‘well, here is what they want to see, so I am going to fill it out.'”
IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra told the commission that the department is using this report to better their agency.
“We know, and we understand that this compliance audit is an important and necessary tool,” Vohra said. “We will use it as we work to move IDPH forward and build a future for public health across our state.”
Vohra became IDPH director in August 2022, replacing former IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. Ezike led the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among other contracts reviews, IDPH entered into a contract with Reditus Laboratories, LLC, for COVID testing services with an estimated cost of $254.1 million.
Rose said another finding he is concerned with is about long-term care facilities for individuals under age 22 to be known and licensed as medically complex for the developmentally disabled.
“These people right here were the last people to be vaccinated on the last day of the state-run COVID vaccination program,” said state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet. “The program had been running for over three months, and then suddenly, on the last day, they found the people who could actually die from COVIC because most of these folks, over half of their population, were on ventilators.”
The auditor general’s IDPH report for the two years that ended June 2019 had 26 findings compared to 31 in the most recent report. Of the 31 findings in the report for the two years ending June 2021, 21 findings were repeated from the previous report.
IDPH’s annual budget is $2.9 billion.
ght here were the last people to be vaccinated on the last day of the state-run COVID vaccination program,” said state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet. “The program had been running for over three months, and then suddenly, on the last day, they found the people who could actually die from COVIC because most of these folks, over half of their population, were on ventilators.”
The Auditor General’s IDPH report for the two years that ended June 2019 had 26 findings compared to 31 in the most recent report. Of the 31 findings in the report for the two years ending June 2021, 21 findings were repeated from the previous report.
IDPH’s annual budget is $2.9 billion.
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