In 2008 Boone County did not provide its CPA audit for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2007 until August 20, 2008. The public and board members did not have an opportunity to review that document until even later. Since then I have made a personal effort to insure the audit is timely. Boone County’s budget has annual appropriations of less than $30,000,000 yet their annual audit was not timely in 2008 and has meet state requirements since then, only through specially requested extensions.
As set forth in 55 ILCS 5/6-31003
The audit shall commence as soon as possible after the close of each fiscal year and shall be completed within 6 months after the close of such fiscal year, unless an extension of time is granted by the Comptroller in writing. Such extension of time shall not exceed 60 days.
Boone County’s audit for the year ending November 30, 2010 should be available June 1, 2011, unless a 60 day extension is obtained. Below is the answer I received to my request to review the audit.
After you read the letter below—do you believe that the Illinois Office of the Comptroller is “unable to generate the approval letter” for the extension? Assume that the Comptroller wanted to grant the extension-- can it be granted without the Comptroller writing an extension letter? Should the public, the CPA firm or the county accept this situation?
Click on the photocopy to enlarge:
