Orland Park is being threatened with a forced audit by the state comptroller’s office because of delays in completing financial audits, although the village says it is making progress in completing the task.
Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office is threatening to withhold some money to Orland Park that comes from the Local Debt Recovery Program, although the amount of money is small.
The dispute centers on the village not yet having filed audits with the state for the 2022 and 2023 budget years, which follow the calendar year.
Orland Park hired an auditor to do both, with the 2022 audit being completed this month and 2023’s audit by early next year, according to correspondence from the village to the comptroller’s office.
The situation is similar to that Dolton is in, although Dolton is going through a forced audit after being unable to find an auditor on its own.
The comptroller is holding back the money, collected for things such as outstanding parking tickets and ordinance violations, and this year is on pace to total $135,000 for Dolton.
Orland Park, in a Sept. 30 letter to the comptroller’s office in response to notice of the potential forced audit, said it has “encountered significant and unavoidable internal and external factors” that have delayed the 2022 and 2023 audits.
The letter, from Chris Frankenfield, the village’s finance director, said the resignation in June of the former finance director and early retirements of key people in the village’s Finance Department contributed to delays.
The village said implementation of a computer system in spring 2022 contributed to delays, according to the letter.
Orland Park said it anticipated having the 2022 budget year audit to the comptroller’s office by the middle of this month, and the 2023 audit by January or February.
Frankenfield said the village is also seeking the “forced audit process be reconsidered in light of our ongoing progress.”
A letter from Naperville-based Sikich, an accounting and advisory firm, to the comptroller’s office Sept. 19 states the 2022 audit will be delivered to the state by the end of this month, and the 2023 audit sent by the end of next March.
Dolton was notified by the comptroller’s office in August that it was late in filing audits, and the office said it had been notifying the village of this delinquency over the past two years.
In a report Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot presented to the public and Dolton trustees Aug. 8, she said the village was not in compliance with state law requiring the filing of annual financial reports.
Lightfoot, hired by trustees as a special investigator to look into village finances and Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s administration, said there is no annual report for Dolton beyond fiscal year 2021 and no audited financial statements are available after that point.
Pekau said Tuesday there are no similarities between Orland Park and Dolton regarding late audits.
Pekau said Orland Park “has demonstrated that it takes this seriously” and that it fired the firm that delayed the village in filing its 2021 audit and immediately hired another accountant.
Pekau said Orland Park continues to receive all payments from the state.
“We have been receiving all payments and will continue to do so,” he said in an email.
Any temporary suspension of payments would have minimal impact on the village’s budget, he said.
A spokesman for the comptroller said many Chicago-area communities, including Chicago and Dolton, contract with the comptroller’s office to collect and distribute the fine money.
The money that went to Dolton last year totaled $120,000, according to the comptroller.
A Dolton trustee said after a recent Village Board meeting the village was unable to hire an auditing firm that would scour through older financial records and complete audits. That resulted in the comptroller directing an outside firm to do the work.
mnolan@southtownstar.com