MACOMB, IL -- They were warned, several times.
Three independent audits in 2009, 2010 and 2012, of the finances of the McDonough County Health Department, stated that county officials should "...implement procedures regarding segregation of duties to prevent employees from having access to financial records and or assets of the county which could allow (them) to perpetrate fraud for their personal financial benefit."
The audits stated "that the same individual records transactions, … prepares checks, has access to a stamp of the required signature, mails checks and reconciles the bank statements.”
But the Republican-dominated County Board, which oversees the Health Department, ignored the advice. Scott Schwerer chairs both the County Board and the Board of Health. Other Republican county officials also received the audits, which are public records, and apparently didn't read them. Neither did the local news media.
Talk about unlocking the barn door so thieves could enter....
On June 19, the Health Department's chief financial officer entered a negotiated plea to stealing $67,000 from the organization, from 2010-2012.
Penny Thompson, 49, of Bushnell, wrote checks on the Health Department's account to "false vendors," to pay her credit card bills, a prosecutor said at the court hearing.
Thompson was then sentenced to 24 months probation which includes 180 days in jail, plus fines, fees and court costs and $17,000 in restitution. Insurance is supposed to pay the rest, according to the court hearing. She pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft and to official misconduct which places her retirement benefits in jeopardy.
Her share of her retirement benefits, which she can get refunded to her, is supposed to pay the restitution she owes, along with the bail posted for her release which the county has seized towards the debt.
She made no statement, and the prosecutor, an assistant state's attorney, also refused to comment afterwards.
But that's not the end of this story.
This theft occurred at a time when the health department closed down its family planning program and in home services program for the elderly. That meant job losses for many employees but also, oddly, unprecedented pay raises for the employees who remained, including Thompson.
The Health Department claimed these programs had to be eliminated due to a lack of funds, even though its tax levy was increased, and it was receiving additional county funds. Apparently nobody was watching where the money was going.
The shut down of these long time programs forced the elderly to seek services elsewhere at additional expense if they could afford it, or leave their homes and enter nursing care facilities, likely paid for by Medicaid tax dollars.
At the time of her arrest Penny Thompson’s annual salary was $41,917, a $15,538 increase between 2006 and 2012.
Her boss, the Health Department Administrator Lynette Cale, saw her pay increase to $68,000 for 2012, from $49,500 in 2007. All remaining employees of the Health Department have seen similar increases in pay, including a 4 percent annual cost of living increase, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Cale remains in her job, and apparently will not be held accountable for any of this.
Meanwhile McDonough County's poor are reeling from the recent shut down of a federal clinic, Eagleview Health Center, which provided dental care and family planning, services the health department ditched a few years ago.
Eagleview, a satellite of a clinic on Oquawaka, said it could no longer afford to operate its Macomb site, an odd decision in light of the Affordable Care Act which is starting up.
Now no one is providing dental and family plannning services to the indigent in Macomb and the county. Cale recently sent an email saying meetings on providing dental services to the indigent have been put off until August. She's referring those who call for help to the local providers.
That means minimal or no dental care for the poor. Medicaid now pays only to pull teeth, and those not eligible for Medicaid are just out of luck without plenty of money to pay the dentist.
This is what happens in rural Illinois counties dominated by Republicans who don't believe in government provided services.
As for family planning, Medicaid already pays for half the births in Illinois. So just as in-home services keep the elderly from nursing homes, family planning prevents unwanted births Without these services people suffer and/or the taxpayers pay more, much more.
What a disgrace, in Illinois, 2013. A crime, really.
-- Elaine Hopkins
FINALLY someone is covering
this corruption
Posted by: Michael D. Selders "Mike" | June 21, 2013 at 07:05 PM