DuPage water audit finds $1 million in 'corrections'

The long-awaited audit of the DuPage Water Commission's 2009 finances is expected to be released next month.

An official from Aurora-based Sikich gave a preliminary report of the auditing firm's findings at Thursday's commission meeting. Lou Karrison, a partner at Sikich, said the company has made 60 adjustments to the commission's financial reports, nine of which had to be done to the commission's 2008 figures.

Rick Skiba, the commission's interim financial administrator, called that many adjustments a “significant number.

Auditors discovered about $1 million in corrections that needed to made to the 2008 reports. However, those corrections won't result in the commission losing funds. The majority of the corrections were related to the commission's assets being valued higher than they should have been, Karrison said.

The audit was delayed due to the commission's ongoing financial saga that started with the accidental spending of its $69 million reserve fund. The commission's former auditing firm, McGladrey & Pullen, was in the midst of an audit when the financial mistakes were discovered. That audit was put on hold while the commission investigated the cause of the misspending.

The investigation determined that the commission's former financial administrator had made a series of accounting errors that caused the commission to believe it had more money than what was actually in the bank.

The investigation also placed blame on the now-former general manager for lax oversight of the accounting department. The 13-member commission also was blamed in the report.

On the heels of the report being released, reform legislation was passed in Springfield that requires the commission to resign by the end of the year and gives some hiring oversight to the county board.

McGladrey & Pullen escaped much of the blame in the report prepared by the investigators. They demanded more money to finish the audit, but the commission balked. Commissioners agreed to pay McGladrey & Pullen $41,000 for the work they did on the 2009 audit and then hired Sikich for $43,750 in March.

“It's taken a little longer to get it in a condition for you, but that's normal for the first year working on a new account, Karrison told the commission. “The main thing we want to do is get it right the first time.

The commission was expected to pick a new general manager at Thursday's meeting, but did not. Now that the county board has to sign off on the general manager selection, the commission sent them the names of three finalists and indicated who the commission felt should be selected.

Commission officials said Thursday the county's choice is different from the commission's and that's the cause for the delay in picking a new top administrator.