Dilatory government doesn’t get it done

Illinois Auditor General William Holland was so angry over the Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ delays in submitting information over the past year, he told them he was suspending all activity on his audit and wouldn’t resume until the “delinquent information” was provided. “For the first time in 15 years, I walked away from an audit,” Holland said in an interview. “I said, ‘You guys are just not being responsive.’ ”

The 2007 fiscal year audit, finally completed and released last week, reports 15 significant “findings,” problems with how the state’s largest department handles its finances. In the body of the report there is strong language: “The department’s actions resulted in significant delays in the financial reporting process, were dilatory, and were a disservice to the users of the state’s financial reports.”

The incident shows how sensitive the Blagojevich administration is to the large Medicaid deficit the state carries, at a time when the governor is trying to expand health-care programs. Last month the auditor general released a separate audit, this one showing that the amount the state has owed medical providers at the end of the last four fiscal years has averaged a whopping $1.5 billion...

[a government run health care system running huge deficits despite being the state's largest department - how surprising. And the governor wants to expand it]

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