YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

February 14, 2003

Report No. 2003-14

The following audit report presents our findings and recommendations for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, City of St. Joseph, Missouri - Municipal Division.� During our audit, we identified accounting records, controls, and certain management practices which we believe could be improved.

The court does not regularly print out a listing of accrued costs and does not always take appropriate action when a case is past due or when a defendant fails to appear in court.� At our request, the court generated a receivables listing of adjudicated cases, which totaled approximately $300,000.� The court was unable to provide a listing of cases where the defendant failed to appear in court.

Access to the computer system is not adequately restricted and a formal contingency plan has not been developed.

The municipal division has not implemented adequate procedures to follow up on cash bonds held for more than one year.� As of June 30, 2002, the balance of the municipal division's bond account included bond receipts totaling approximately $18,500, which had been held in excess of one year.� The court indicated that many of the defendants whose bond has been held for over one year have failed to appear in court, yet no cash bonds were forfeited during the audit period.� Additionally, the municipal division does not follow up on surety bonds posted by defendants who fail to make the required court appearances.

During our cash counts, approximately 90 checks and money orders, totaling approximately $6,000, were on hand.� Some of the checks had been received over six weeks prior to the date of our counts.� These checks and money orders had not been transmitted or restrictively endorsed.� In addition, a log is maintained of all monies received through the mail; however, this log is not reconciled to receipt slips issued or to the transmittals made to the city.

Conviction reports produced by the system were sometimes incomplete or inaccurate.� These conviction reports are used to notify the Department of Revenue of points violations.

Neither the police department nor the municipal division adequately accounts for the numerical sequence of traffic tickets and their ultimate disposition.

Complete Audit Report