Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino's honesty needs to be examined before he is allowed to look over the state's finances, Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) suggested during House debate of an override of Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of HR522.

The measure would allow Mautino to conduct a performance audit of the procurement of a state contract. Wehrli questioned HR522 sponsor Rep. Al Riley (D-Hazel Crest) on the wisdom of such a bill considering that Mautino is under federal investigation for questionable finances on his 2014 campaign report as a state legislator.

“Isn’t our current auditor general under federal investigation right now?” Wehrli said. 

HR522 directs Mautino to review the 10-year, $94 million Morneau Shepell contract granted in 2015 for the state's Central Management Services employees' online health portal insurance program.

“Whether he is qualified or not, that is what the office of the auditor general does,” Riley countered, noting the he sees many questionable things about contract letting. “It’s what we should do in the sense of transparency and continuing on in the march to do the right thing in procurement and giving everyone a fair shot to do business with the state.”

Wehrli didn't agree.

“My point is, we currently have an auditor general that has no experience in doing this other than his legislative duties when was a state representative,” he said. 

Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) also questioned Mautino’s honesty.

“We have an auditor general that is auditing friends of his,” Batnick said of another state contract Mauntino supervised. “We are not asking the hard questions of where the waste of money is going.”

Batnick said the bill would make sense except for who would be overseeing the audit.

“If we audit, maybe we should have somebody who wants to ask the tough questions, and maybe we should all attend meetings to find out what is happening in the audits,” Batnick said.

Wehrli urged the House to reject the veto override.

“He (Mautino) is currently under federal investigation for many things, and I just find it ironic that we are trying to run a state here that we have no fiscal oversight out of our watchdog the auditor general,” Wehrli said.

The House voted 106-0 to adopt the resolution to override. The measure now goes back to the Senate.