YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
December 31, 2002
Report No. 2002-120
The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Department of Mental Health, Bellefontaine Habilitation Center.
Non-appropriated client and facility monies are deposited into a fiduciary checking account that is maintained by personnel at the Bellefontaine Habilitation Center (BHC).� All transactions and balances are maintained on the Non-appropriated Funds System (NAFS).� BHC personnel are responsible for depositing receipts, disbursing funds, and reconciling the NAFS accounts for the BHC, St. Louis Developmental Disabilities Treatment Centers (SLDDTC), and the St. Louis Regional Center (SLRC).� Our audit noted the following concerns:
The proper disposition of monies in a NAFS holding account at the BHC is unknown.� NAFS personnel cannot provide a listing of clients who are entitled to $22,981 of client monies in the holding account.� Also, there is $2,983 in miscellaneous subaccounts within the holding account that are unidentified.
Proper documentation is not maintained for all disbursements from the NAFS.� Numerous NAFS checks were made payable to a local bank for cash.� Because making checks payable to banks for cash increases the risk of misuse of monies, this practice should be prohibited.
North County Industries (NCI) is a not-for-profit corporation located on the grounds of the BHC to assist individuals in developing marketable skills and good work habits.� Although NCI is set up as a private not-for profit corporation, its operations are primarily overseen by BHC personnel, who are paid from state monies.� The total salaries paid to the 13 employees for time worked at NCI, from state funds, for the year ended June 30, 2002, was approximately $234,000.
The BHC also provides NCI with five vehicles, fuel for these vehicles, utilities, and a facility on the BHC campus.� In addition, during the year ended June 30, 2002, NCI� billed BCH over $13,150, for work that BHC clients, in the NCI program, performed on the campus.� The Missouri Constitution prohibits the donation of public funds to a private corporation.
The Bellefontaine Habilitation Center's policy requires all client incidents and injuries be recorded, reviewed, and appropriately acted upon.� Our review of ten incident and injury report files revealed the following concerns:
� All ten files contained at least two documents that were incomplete.
� None of the ten files contained any evidence of follow-up or disposition on the incident or injury.
Proper documentation is not maintained for all certified medical technicians.� This certification is required for all employees who administer medications to clients. Upon our request for a current listing of medical technicians, personnel noted the listing contained more than 40 employees that no longer worked at the BHC.� Documentation of meeting certification requirements was not kept for 139 technicians on the listing and 56 technicians on the listing had expired certifications.
The BHC has approximately 87 state-owned vehicles that are primarily used to transport clients, move goods between campus facilities and for employee travel.� We noted vehicle logs were either incomplete or not used by some departments in accordance with BHC policy and that� current check-out procedures do not provide adequate control over state-owned vehicles.� Additionally, 45 of 87 vehicles were driven less than 5,000 miles during the year ended June 30, 2001.� Low mileage can often indicate that a facility has too many vehicles or that a facility does not efficiently utilize vehicles.
The audit report also includes some other matters related to timekeeping procedures, employee recognition fund procedures, fire evacuation drills, and general fixed assets upon which the center should consider and take appropriate corrective action.