Open a web browser.

Navigate to auditor.illinois.gov.

On the left side of the page is a menu – blue with white text – hover over “Audit Reports” and then choose “State Agency List (Alphabetical),” then scroll down a few letters and click on “Human Rights, Department of.”

From here, you can choose from 32 different subheads. The first option is a summary of a financial audit for fiscal 1993, the most recent is a compliance examination for fiscal 2023, including both the summary and full report.

There’s also a page for performance, special and multi-agency audits for the past decade, all underneath a link to audits released as far back as 1974. In 2024 alone, there are three performance audits involving DHS: the Independent Services Coordination of its Division of Developmental Disabilities, the DHS Inspector General, as well as oversight and monitoring of the Community Integrated Living Arrangement Program.

That’s a 142-page PDF. There are two pages of “key findings” regarding the CILA licensing process, how DHS monitors the program and emergency call notifications, as well as 15 key recommendations. And you’ve got to keep scrolling just to get to the table of contents.

I’m not suggesting any of you have the time for this deep dive or the working knowledge to understand every minute detail (although perhaps the three pages of glossary terms and acronym deciphering will help), but I will strongly imply that if you hear a politician – a term I chose intentionally instead of “elected official” – asserting concerns about administrative financial fraud or abuse, it’s important to listen closely to hear if that person offers the types of details that would be included in these publicly available documents.

For example, in December 2024, the Auditor General’s Office said its fiscal 2023 DHS review revealed the agency lacks “sufficient internal control over accounting for grant transactions resulting in material misstatements to the draft financial statements.”

Some findings are basic accounting issues, like equipment or service contract expenditures recorded in the wrong fiscal year. Others reveal deeper operational concerns, like an inability to provide documents supporting certain expense reconciliations. Taken together, and especially framed in the larger context of the many other state agency reports, it’s a reminder that the state allocates significant resources into the auditing framework, and someone sincerely interested in reform would most likely start with a thorough review of everything that’s already documented.

That’s not to say the Auditor General’s Office is flawless or to imply every financial crime has been detected and prosecuted. Politics and humanity are always valid considerations. But voters can be discerning and preferential toward political actors who take the time to directly engage with the present reality versus those who can’t prove they bothered.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.