YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2000-72
August 1, 2000

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like New Madrid, which do not have a county auditor.  However, to assist such counties in meeting federal audit requirements, the State Auditor will also perform a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds every two years.  This voluntary service to Missouri counties can only be provided when state auditing resources are available and does not interfere with the State Auditor’s constitutional responsibility of auditing state government.

Once every four years, the State Auditor’s statutory audit will cover additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials,  as required by Missouri’s Constitution. 

This audit of New Madrid County was a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds.  The following concerns were noted as part of the audit:

• The Health Center did not bid the purchase of food and supplies during 1998.  Therefore the audit questioned costs of $183,600 which is the federal share of the food and supplies purchased for the Summer Food program during 1998.
  
• As similarly noted in a prior audit, the county procured bridge replacement engineering services during the audit period without documentation of consideration of other firms.  The County Clerk indicated this firm was chosen because of the county’s prior experience with the firm on other projects.  As a result, the audit report questioned costs of $37,759 which is the federal share of engineering costs paid during 1999.

The audit also includes some other matters upon which the county should consider and take appropriate corrective action.

Complete Audit Report