After a series of delays, DuPage County Auditor Bill White has indicated a series of financial reports should be unveiled within the next month as he pledges higher priority in going through assorted protocols and producing the documents.
White went before the DuPage County Board on Tuesday, June 25, and said he was not able to provide elected officials with the long-delayed cannabis audit report, nor did he have the nearly four years worth of quarterly financial audit reports that have been backlogged.
Auditor notes several reasons for delays
White cited several reasons for the delays, including staffing within his office and inadequate technology that — at least for the time being — will require manual inputting of data.
The cannabis audit report stems from the implementation of a 3% retail sales tax on recreational cannabis sales in DuPage County in 2019. The tax was to have benefited county operations, though in 2021, state officials revealed paperwork was not filed, and, consequently, the tax was not collected.
White’s audit report is expected to look into what happened with the failed paperwork filing, though he declined to go into any specifics at the recent County Board meeting. He said he first is required to provide the county clerk with it — and also is opting to hand the draft over to the county administrator — so both can provide responses, if so desired.
“I foresee giving them the report,” White said. “I’ll come back July 9th and tell you where we’re at. I am not ethically able to release the report until the auditing entity has a chance to review it and provide their comments.”
Failure to file regular quarterly audit reports for much of tenure
White, who narrowly was voted into office in 2020, has not filed quarterly audit reports for much of his tenure, even though they are required under state statute. He indicated to the board he intends to have the backlog completed by the end of July.
“My staff has got to set aside the time over a couple of weeks to just manually crunch these things out,” said White, who indicated he will be requesting new software in his next budget request to make the process more efficient.
Critiques from DuPage County Board members
While White had little to report on either documents, beyond a proposed presentation timeline, County Board commissioners had pointed comments to the auditor for the continued delays.
“I’m really disappointed,” District 1 commissioner Cindy Cahill said. “I was an auditor for 10 years at Ernst and Young. You would never, ever see this in the business world. An internal auditor is really an essential part of the organization — the first line of defense, someone who brings forth to the management issues that they have uncovered during the year.”
Commissioner Dawn Desart, who represents District 5, said she feels White should have approached the County Board with additional funding requests years ago as delays first occurred.
“(The quarterly reports) haven’t been done for four years,” Desart said. “If you needed help, why didn’t you come to the board and say, ‘Hey, we need to revisit either staffing or technology or something?’ Four years without quarterly reports is unacceptable.”
Reports “should have been done, and they will be done,” auditor says
White, for his part, said he is taking responsibility and accountability for the delay in releasing the quarterly audit reports.
“The manual process is very time consuming, and probably the most honest answer is that we have a king-size bed of obligations, and a queen-size sheet of resources,” he said. “But they should have been done, and they will be done.”
Commissioner James Zay, who represents District 6, said he was “at a loss for words” on the delays from White’s office on the reports, which he deemed critical.
“You’re the auditor,” Zay said. “Your main job is to audit. I don’t understand how you say you have other obligations when this is state mandated. It just seems we’re pushing this down the road.”
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