How The County Auditor Works For You
The Illinois
statutes provide that larger counties, with a population over 75,000, shall
elect the County Auditor to a four year term of office. DuPage County elected
its first County Auditor in 1932. (See History of the County Auditor) As the
County's only independently elected officer responsible for evaluating and
reporting on County operations, the County Auditor examines how and where County
money, under the jurisdiction of the DuPage County Board and eight County-wide
Elected Officials, is spent, and how efficiently these agencies are operating.
The duties of the County Auditor are defined in the statutes, and include:
Scrutinizing County Expenditures
The County Auditor audits the
bills to be paid by the County to determine that the expenditures have been properly authorized, are accurate and comply with County policies.
During fiscal year 2021 more than 41,500 invoices for goods and services, totaling more than $224.7 million, were audited by the County Auditor. Over 1,860 of these invoices totaling $16.7 million were disapproved by the County Auditor prior to being paid for various reasons. These reasons can include inadequate documentation, duplicate submission, non-compliance with County policy or lack of authorization. In these situations, the invoices are returned to the submitting department by the County Auditor for correction.
Reporting on DuPage Finances
The County's Revenue and Expenditures Report for the current fiscal year
is updated each business day and includes a summary of the financial
activity for each Fund and Department with subtotals by budgetary line item
and net operating gain or loss.
Monitoring Your Tax Dollars
The
County Auditor maintains a complete record of all contracts entered into and
expenditures made by the County.
Improving Government Operations
The County Auditor performs independent internal audits of County departments
to identify ways of providing DuPage taxpayers with better services and improved
controls at less cost. During fiscal year 2021, more than 90 reports were issued to County management identifying areas for improvement.
Abstracts of recent audit reports are
available online.
Conserving Your Tax Money
The County Auditor
identifies wasteful practices and weak control procedures, and recommends
corrective action.
Ensuring Accountability For Assets
In order
to determine that DuPage County assets are properly accounted for, the County
Auditor conducts audits of the equipment owned by the County.
The County
Auditor audits operations under the jurisdiction of the DuPage County Board and
eight County-wide Elected Officials. You may use the County Auditor's Audit Hotline to
report any issues about these agencies. The County Auditor does
not have the statutory authority to audit the following entities which
are governed by separate boards: DuPage Airport Authority, DuPage Forest
Preserve, DuPage Health Department, DuPage Housing Authority, and DuPage Water
Commission. These
agencies should be contacted directly if there are any questions and/or concerns
over their operations.