YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2000-03
January 7, 2000

Some problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office regarding the Schuyler County Health Department Building Project, Schuyler County, Missouri.

Building project expenditures totaled approximately $30,000 and $215,400 in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

Inadequate advanced project planning and the necessary related fiscal and budgetary planning prevented the board from properly identifying and controlling project costs.

Other problems with board management of the project included the following:

Inadequate internal controls overseeing project invoices and payments.

Inadequate budgeting.

Inadequate safeguarding of assets.

Building cost estimates were not reported to nor requested by the board in a timely manner, the health department paid a vendor $4,000 in excess of the contract price, and the "interior carpentry" services apparently was not performed in accordance with contractual specifications. The $4,000 overpayment was refunded after we brought it to the attention of the health department.

The Board of Trustees did not include building project expenditures in its annual budgets for 1998 and 1999. Additionally, the board does not perform or document a periodic comparison of actual revenues and expenditures with budgeted amounts.

The health department did not obtain or maintain insurance coverage on the building during its construction, exposing taxpayer funds to possible loss.

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