Questions are being raised as to why the Illinois Department of Human Services left behind a forklift and a tractor — as well as confidential patient and employee records and other items — when it shut down three mental health facilities due to funding cutbacks in 2012.
The revelations came to light as part of an audit performed by William Holland, the state’s auditor general, who is now charging that the agency failed to properly inventory its property and also failed to follow proper shut-down procedures when it closed the facilities in Tinley Park, Jacksonville and Rockford.
Even after the facilities had been shuttered, deliveries were still being made to them, including more than $1,000 worth of bread and juice that were dropped off at the Rockford site nearly a month after it closed, according to media reports.
Inspectors from the auditor’s office discovered the vehicles, as well as boxes and file cabinets filled with confidential records, still on the properties up to 13 months after they had been shut down.
A spokesman for the Human Services department blamed “oversight” for the problem and said the agency has put together a comprehensive plan for future facility closings.
There was no immediate report of what happened to the forklift.