IL Department of Human Services’ adverse audit draws legislators’ ire
[August 23, 2025]
By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A recent adverse audit of the Illinois Department
of Human Services is the worst audit seen by the cochairman of the
Legislative Audit Commission.
An official from the Illinois Auditor General explained the adverse
findings during a commission hearing Friday for the most recent two-year
audit of the agency.
“This means that while we obtained sufficient, appropriate audit
evidence, the misstatements individually or in the aggregate were both
material and pervasive to the subject matter,” the official said. “To
such an extent, we expressed an adverse opinion pursuant to the
codification of statements on standards for attestation engagements.”
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, is the co-chair of the Legislative
Audit Commission.
“This is quite frankly one of the worst audits I've ever seen,” Rose
said. “And it's so bad you don't even know where to start. But let's
start with the taxpayers, and then we'll conclude with the human beings
whose lives are caught up in this.”
There were 33 total findings in 2021 and 32 in 2023. Of those, 25 were
repeated with seven being new.
tate Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, called for the audit. He said
constituents dealing with DHS are being left behind and the audits show
the agency is keeping poor records.
“So when I asked earlier about how many are in jail, that's where these
residents end up at because they're not a one on one in the [Community
Integrated Living Arrangements] when they're supposed to be,” Meier
said. “You're standing here taking a major amount of the state taxpayers
dollars. And it's like they're playing a board game of monopoly, moving
these people around instead of getting them the services they need.”
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Officials from the Illinois Department of Human Services and the
Illinois Auditor General's office during a Legislative Audit
Commission hearing on Aug. 22, 2025 - BlueRoomStream
Rose also noted the state’s handling of federal Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program funds.
“But now let's get to something that is even, quite frankly, more
important than the $700 million we're potentially going to lose. And
that's these human lives, this restraint stuff,” Rose said. “It's
just stunning.”
One of the audit findings was the population of patient restraints
being issued couldn’t be substantiated, nor could the number of
employees qualified to order restraints, a finding repeated since
2017.
Rose said he understands employees of facilities where some youth
are being treated are “dealing with individuals who maybe have some
of the worst afflictions known to man” and could be difficult to
deal with “through no fault of their own.”
“But that’s why we have policies and procedures, and we got to
follow those policies and procedures," Rose said. “Otherwise,
imagine being that human being, cannot communicate verbally, struck
in a restraint for hours with no ability to say they got to go to
the bathroom. That’s just flat out wrong. And by the way, this one
has gone on for decades."
Agency officials said they are working on corrective action plans to
address repeated audit findings.
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