YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

August 9, 2002

Report No. 2002-54

IMPORTANT:� The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Douglas, which do not have a county auditor.� However, to assist such counties in meeting federal audit requirements, the State Auditor will also provide 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 Douglas 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 established cash management procedures to ensure the minimum time lapses between its receipt of federal project monies and the disbursement of such monies to contractors.� Federal project monies were held longer than the two day maximum allowed by the Cash Management Improvement Act.� The county participated in the Highway Planning and Construction Program and received approximately $330,000 through this program. 

• 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 Douglas County�s Associate County Commissioners salaries were each increased approximately $2,696 yearly, according to the computations prepared by the county clerk.� These computations did not apply the same percentages consistently for all county officials; therefore the exact amount is unclear.

  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 $5,392 for the two years ended December 31, 2000, should be repaid.

• The County� Commission does not maintain adequate minutes of its meetings.� As of April 11, 2002, the last entry in the official record book was for January 24, 2002.� In addition, the minutes do not accurately reflect the Commissioners in attendance and the minutes are not signed by the Presiding Commissioner to attest to their accuracy.

• The county does not maintain insurance coverage for all road equipment.� It is the County Commission's practice to release insurance coverage on equipment once the lease purchase against the equipment is paid in full; however, documentation is not maintained to support such decision.� In May 2001, the county released property coverage on road equipment including four graders and two backhoes totaling $268,920.

Also included in the audit are recommendations to the County Commission related to bonding county employees, maintaining adequate general fixed asset records and maintaining records of fuel usage.� In addition, recommendations were made to improve the accounting controls and procedures of the County Collector, Circuit Clerk and� Sheriff.

Complete Audit Report