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YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
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September 24, 2001
Report No. 2001-93
IMPORTANT:
The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits
only once every four years in counties, like Crawford, 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 Crawford County included additional areas of county operations, as well
as the elected county officials. The
following concerns were noted as part of the audit:
- The county has not
sufficiently reduced its general revenue property tax levy to reduce
property tax revenues by 50 percent of sales tax revenues as provided in the
ballot issue passed by Crawford County voters under state law.
Procedural errors, together with actual sales tax collections
exceeding estimated amounts has resulted in the county having collected
excess property tax revenues. Additional
reductions will need to be made in future years to the property tax levy to
fully adjust for the $35,898 excess property taxes collected in prior years.
- Bids were not always
solicited, nor was bid documentation always retained for various purchases
made by the county during the audit period. The County Commission paid $92,535 for a paving project
which was not awarded to the low bidder.
The paving project was bid twice and the same company was the low
bidder each time. The county
paid an additional $8,000 on this project because they did not select the
low bidder. In the minutes the
County Commission indicated that they awarded the contract to the high
bidder because the firm was located in the county.
- A state law, Section
50.333.13, RSMo, enacted in 1997, allowed salary commissions meeting in 1997
to provide mid-term salary increases for associate county commissioners
elected in 1996 due to the fact that their terms were increased from two
years to four. Based on this
law, in 1999 Crawford County�s Associate County Commissioners salaries
were each increased approximately $5,000 yearly
according to the County Clerk.
On
May 15, 2001, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down an opinion that holds that
all raises given pursuant to this statute section are unconstitutional.
Based on the Supreme Court decision, the raises given to each of the
Associate County Commissioners, totaling approximately $10,000 for the two years
ended December 31, 2000, should be repaid.
- The County Collector
has not prepared or filed annual settlements for the years ended February 28
(29) 2001, 2000, and 1999, with the County Commission as required by state
law. A draft of the settlement
for the year ended February 28, 2001 was prepared upon request in April
2001. Various amounts on the
draft were inaccurate and did not agree to the tax books, some activity was
not included, and the draft settlement did not balance.
In addition, the County Collector does not reconcile daily
collections to paid tax receipts or deposits in the bank account and does
not compare the reconciled monthly bank balance to the related liabilities.
For example, at February 28, 2001, identified liabilities totaled
approximately $1,500 more than the reconciled bank balance.
Other concerns regarding the County Collector�s operations were
also noted.
- The financial statement
for the year ended December 31, 1999 was not published until January 17,
2001. The County Clerk stated
that the financial statement was not published because of problems caused by
the conversion to a new computerized accounting system in March 1999 and the
amounts had to be manually recalculated to prepare an accurate financial
statement for publication. In addition, the activity of some county funds was not
included as required.
The audit also includes some matters related to the
purchase of land, a reimbursement not received, fringe benefits, fixed assets,
reporting of expenditures of federal awards, property tax system, E911 Board,
and the Crawford County Nursing Service, upon which the county should consider
and take appropriate corrective action. Several
of these issues had been noted in prior audits.
Complete Audit Report
Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@mail.auditor.state.mo.us
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