Could Transparency Have Prevented Hanover Township Corruption?

by Brian Costin As a resident and taxpayer of Hanover Township I am appalled to see the new allegations of corruption and the questionable expenditures in the amount of $300,000 from former Hanover Township employee Aurea Picasso. An article in the Daily Herald notes: “The investigation was launched after Hanover Township Supervisor Brian McGuire discovered what he believes...

by Brian Costin

As a resident and taxpayer of Hanover Township I am appalled to see the new allegations of corruption and the questionable expenditures in the amount of $300,000 from former Hanover Township employee Aurea Picasso.

An article in the Daily Herald notes:

“The investigation was launched after Hanover Township Supervisor Brian McGuire discovered what he believes to be more than $300,000 in questionable expenditures over the last several years. He says he believes Picasso misused money over the five years she was welfare services director.

McGuire says he has evidence that Picasso wrote hundreds of checks to individuals and vendors for which there are no valid records or documentation, including a $3,816 to payment to her daughter’s orthodontist.”

It takes a long time to steal that much money, and it is apparent that appropriate safeguards weren’t in place to prevent such actions. Government transparency is one such safeguard that should be seriously considered.

To root out government corruption the Illinois Policy Institute has established a 10-point transparency checklist that gives best practice guidelines for government agencies to implement. Unfortunately, the Township’s website at www.hanover-township.org is extremely lacking in online transparency. Hanover Township didn’t have any information in 7 out of the 10 categories including no comprehensive annual financial reports, no check register or expenditures, no details about contracts with third-parties, and no information about how to submit a Freedom of Information Act request (which is required by state law).

Transparency in Hanover Township, not to mention many other government agencies in Illinois, needs to be dramatically improved to prevent this type of government corruption from happening again.

UPDATE: It appears a number of updates have been made to the Hanover Township page over the last few days since we first audited them. The elected officials page now has phone numbers and emails. Some FOIA information can be found on the FAQ page. Also, we were contacted by Hanover Township administrators and the informed us they plan to update more information on their website in the coming days and weeks.

A significant step in the right direction.