YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2000-93
September 19, 2000

During our audit of the Twenty-Ninth Judicial Circuit, Associate Division V, Jasper County, Missouri, we identified the following problems.�

The Twenty-Ninth Judicial Circuit, Associate Division V, Jasper County, Missouri, is responsible for assessing, collecting, and distributing monies in connection with the court proceedings in that division.� In May 2000, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney contacted the State Auditor�s office indicating some monies received by the court had not been deposited to the court�s accounts.

On April 6, 2000, court employees noted discrepancies in five criminal case files.� Fines and costs totaling $1,502, related to these cases had been turned over to the court by the Sheriff�s department between January and early April 2000, but these monies had not been properly receipted or deposited by the court.

On April 11, 2000, Lynette Weathers, court clerk, repaid $2,502 to the court. According to the Judge, she admitted to taking the $1,502 noted above as well as a $1,000 cash bond.� This bond, received from the Sheriff�s department on March 21, 2000, had been properly receipted, but not deposited into the bond account.� Ms. Weathers has been charged with felony stealing related to these transactions.� Ms. Weathers continued to work until May 5, 2000, at which time she went on paid maternity leave.� She resigned on July 31, 2000.�

In addition to those discrepancies discovered by the court, one additional transaction was not accounted for properly.� According to the Sheriff�s records, a $538 fines and costs transaction was transmitted in cash to Ms. Weathers on November 15, 1999; however, this transaction was not properly receipted and deposited until February 18, 2000.�

Various accounting and procedural weaknesses existed in the court, some of which allowed the discrepancies to occur without being detected on a timely basis.� The Sheriff�s department collects cash bonds, as well as fines and costs, which are transmitted to the associate division.� These monies are recorded by the Sheriff�s department when received and then transmitted to the associate division.� Because the monies are not deposited into a Sheriff�s department bank account significant amounts of cash are transmitted to the associate division.� No independent reviews are performed comparing the monies transmitted by the Sheriff�s department to the court�s receipt records.�

The Criminal and Civil Fee Account should include only undistributed fines and fees and accumulated interest at the end of the month.�� The bank reconciliations prepared for this account were not accurate and did not take into consideration all outstanding checks.� In addition, the bank balances were not reconciled to any undistributed fines and fees and accumulated interest.� As a result of not properly performing these reconciliations, the court was unaware this account was short by approximately $5,680 at May 31, 2000, as a result of two disbursement errors.�

The duties of receiving, recording, depositing, and disbursing monies are not adequately segregated.

A book balance is not documented in the bond ledger at month end.� As a result, activity recorded in the bond ledger cannot be reconciled to the bank balance or to a listing of open items.�� In addition,� monthly listings of open items are not prepared for the Bond Account.� It appears there is currently over $3,800 in unidentified money in that account and there is a significant amount of old bonds on the open items list which have not been disposed of properly.

Receipts are not always deposited on a timely basis.� Receipts for fines and costs were often held two to three weeks before being deposited and included significant amounts of cash.�

As noted in the previous report, procedures to monitor and collect old accrued costs could be improved.��� No work has been done to collect accrued costs on many cases where monies are owed. Without the active and timely pursuit of accrued costs, revenues to the state and county could be lost.

During a review of cases opened during the last five months of 1999 and the first five months of 2000, court employees could not locate the case files related to eleven cases.�

In the court�s response to the various recommendations to address these problems, the judge generally indicated these recommendations had already been implemented or would be implemented.

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