Illinois Lottery Blindly Paid for Ads

ILLINOIS – As reported by the Chicago Tribune: "In the second case in two weeks of alleged mismanagement of state taxpayer funds, Auditor General William Holland said Wednesday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich's lottery department could not justify millions of dollars in payments to its prime ad agency.

"Holland, who last week issued a scathing audit of wasteful spending and questionable cost savings in Blagojevich programs aimed at saving the state money, said as much as $5.1 million of the $7.1 million paid out to R.J. Dale Advertising & Public Relations for lottery ads lacked documentation to prove that the ads had ever run.

"Geraldine Conrad, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Revenue, which oversees the lottery, said the agency 'did not dispute' Holland's audit findings. Despite the potential for unaccounted millions of dollars, Conrad said the lottery has kept R.J. Dale on contract because the state has adopted safeguards 'to protect the state's interests' and because lottery revenues have increased.

"…Holland's audit covered the budget year that ended June 30, when R.J. Dale had a smaller contract with the state. Auditors sampled payments to the firm and found in nearly three-quarters of them that there was no paperwork to prove that R.J. Dale had bought the TV and print ads it said it had…"