Performance review for state treasurer

 

The client

The Illinois State Treasurer manages approximately $25 billion for the state of Illinois, including $13 billion in state funds, $7 billion in college savings plans, and $5 billion on behalf of state and local governments.

The challenge

Upon taking office in 2015, the State Treasurer committed to producing a 100-day report that identified critical areas of attention and initial accomplishments and outlined the administration’s next steps. Before developing this report, the Treasurer turned to our team to conduct an objective performance review and assist in identifying ways to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and reduce costs.

The solution

Through independent analysis and staff interviews in various departments, we identified several existing challenges, including:

• A “clout-heavy” paid internship program without written policies and procedures.
• A college savings scholarship program in need of a complete overhaul.
• An unclaimed property division in need of stronger inventory controls, new security cameras for inventory, and more timely reporting.
• Home-based workers lacked adequate supervision, incurred higher travel reimbursement costs, and were not geographically located effectively.

The benefit

The performance review helped the Illinois State Treasurer identify several opportunities to improve organizational structure, including:

• Integrating technology systems within the Treasurer’s office and among other state agencies
• Aligning organizational structure around complementary functions
• Measuring productivity, resources, and quality to determine program effectiveness and efficiency
• Reducing organizational risk by transforming the internal audit program
• Replacing security cameras and improving monitoring of unclaimed property

“Plante Moran exceeded our expectations in delivering a timely and efficient report that helped us develop a roadmap for improving our operations. Not only did they work closely with our staff to identify problems, but they provided high-level detail and excellent suggestions.”
— ZACH KOUTSKY, Senior Advisor to the State Treasurer