State & Local Reports

What Was Performed? An examination of the Smyrna School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. We reviewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Smyrna School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expenditures and tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by Title 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings. All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.The examination of the Smyrna School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.

The COVID-19 Pandemic presented the Department with many challenges and obstacles including a sharp increase in the volume of unemployment claims as well as the expansion of regular unemployment benefits by the federal government. The Department did not have the man-power or technology resources to adequately deal with this drastic increase in claim activity and the addition of new federal unemployment funding. The Department’s legacy unemployment System, Ohio Job Insurance (OJI), has been in place since 2004. Due to its age and functionality, it was unable to handle the increased volume of claimants brought on by the pandemic. This report includes 10 recommendations to the Department which we believe will help improve the operations related to Unemployment Insurance.

OIG found that the municipal license plate inventory the Department of Assets, Information and Services (AIS) manages does not match the Illinois Secretary of State (ILSOS) database of municipal plates issued to the City. Approximately 7,000 municipal license plates issued by ILSOS for City vehicles are unaccounted for at AIS. Without an accurate database and regular audit of the City’s municipal license plates, AIS is unable to account for and track the possession and use of all municipal license plates assigned to the City, resulting in, among other things, a significant risk of abuse and misconduct with municipal plates and vehicles within the City’s fleet.OIG’s review of AIS’ records discovered disjointed datasets and lists and multiple outdated recordkeeping practices. OIG also found that AIS’ municipal license plate records are incomplete and inaccurate or outdated. AIS’ current practices also lack effective quality control and auditing measures to ensure that license plates are properly registered and affixed to City vehicles or properly destroyed after the end of service. Without regular audits of the municipal plate inventory, thousands of discrepancies between ILSOS and AIS records have developed over time. Accordingly, AIS is unable to accurately account for all the license plates within its physical possession and is unable to verify that all license plates currently registered to City vehicles are properly affixed to the correct vehicle within the M5 database. The existence of thousands of unaccounted municipal license plates poses serious safety and security issues for the City. Lost or misplaced license plates could be attached to non-City vehicles, allowing those vehicles to be illegally driven and improperly used. With improperly registered plates, City vehicles involved in traffic accidents or violations could create liability issues. Furthermore, allowing plates to be registered to multiple vehicles and failing to account for when the plates are swapped between vehicles provides ripe opportunity for City vehicles to be abused, misappropriated, or misused in violation of City policies or rules.

What Was Performed? An examination of the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. We reviewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure New Castle Technical-Vocational School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expenditures and tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by Title 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings. All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.The examination of the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.

The audit examined the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT’s) Millbury roadway reconstruction and related work for the period September 3, 2015 through June 30, 2020.

We conducted a state high‑risk audit of the California Department of Education’s (Education) management of the federal funding it received to help local educational agencies (LEAs) respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The following report details our conclusion that Education must improve its oversight of these funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to ensure that LEAs spend the funding before the associated deadlines and comply with relevant requirements.

What Was Performed? An examination of the Milford School District Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. Were viewed the Career and Technical Education funds to ensure Milford School District allocated the mandated 90 percent of funds to the correct schools. Additionally, the team randomly selected 10 percent of the Career and Technical Education expenditures and tested them to ensure the funds were expended to support the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs.Why This Engagement? This engagement is mandated by Title 14 Del. C. §1706, which requires periodic audits by the State Auditor’s office. What was found? I am pleased to say this engagement contained no findings.All reviewed vouchers supported the state-approved occupational-vocational courses and programs. The examination of the Milford School District’s Career and Technical Education funds for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 can be found on our website.

On May 6, 2021, an equipment failure at the Roseland Pumping Station (RPS) caused pressure in the water main to drop, requiring the Department of Water Management (DWM) to issue a 24-hour water-boil order for much of the 19th Ward in the RPS service area––spanning from Albany Avenue to the west, 119th Street to the south, and west of Interstate 57 to southwest Beverly Avenue. The resulting boil order affected residents of the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods.On May 25, 2021, failure of the same type of equipment caused a second power outage at the facility which did not result in a boil order but exacerbated concerns about the facility, resulting in media reports and a formal aldermanic request that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigate what had become a matter of ongoing public concern.OIG examined the issues at RPS, which included interviewing a City vendor and City and ComEd officials, as well as reviewing emails and records. On the basis of the information provided, OIG has concluded that the root of the May 6, 2021 and May 25, 2021 issues was a City equipment failure inside the station––namely, a rented uninterruptible power supply (UPS) unit installed in 2018 and a temporary replacement installed after the May 6th event.