Late last night, Treasurer's candidate Bob Grogan posted this cryptic piece on his Facebook page explaining the nuances of how auditing works and how a proper accounting (get it...that was a CPA joke! Bob should love that!) is difficult to do.
From Bob Grogan's Facebook Page:
Post by Bob Grogan, CPA.
That made us wonder what he was talking about. While we've seen other stories about Bob - like this one that talks about how Bob Grogan didn't conduct very many audits as the DuPage County Auditor or this one that talks about how Bob Grogan has secured endorsements from the very politicians that he audits. But we hadn't come across a story about how Bob Grogan's 'batting average' - his per average cost of audit - wasn't in line with others.
A quick Google search of [bob grogan per audit dupage auditor] turns up a recent news item.
And it is a doozy.
Titled: Two County Auditors, Two Different Results Over Five Years, the story compares two like politicans. Bob Grogan, the DuPage County Auditor. And Duffy Blackburn, the Will County Auditor. They are brothers in arms. They do the same job for similar counties. And their counties are right next to each other. They 'feel each others pain' if you will.
But the results of each of their work? They're pretty different.
From the story:
By the end of Grogan’s first term as DuPage County Auditor, total office expenditures jumped 10.4%. During the same time frame, the Will County Auditor (a Democrat) managed to slash his budget by 35%.
Even with this increased spending, efficiency seems to lag in DuPage Auditor’s Office. Consider that in 2012, Grogan only conducted 3 internal audits, and those audits didn’t involve county finances.
...As a comparison, Will County conducted 57 during the same year even at a spending level reduced bymore than 1/3. Using these numbers, the 2012 “cost per audit” in Will County was just over $9,000; contrast this with the staggering $166,122.67 “cost per audit” conducted next door in DuPage County.
...The startling disparity between the Will County Auditor and the DuPage County Auditor is sure to factor into discussions between now and the March 18 primary. Certainly, explaining how a Republican auditor increased spending by more than 10% as a neighboring Democratic auditor slashed spending by 35% cannot be pleasant.
Unpleasant indeed. We likely would haven't come across the piece unless Bob - himself - piqued our interest. The difficult piece is the comparison to a Democrat. As a party, we can talk a big talk about smaller government, but when things like this hit the news, it makes it difficult for all the ILGOP to be taken seriously.
