YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
March 10, 2004
Report No. 2004-20
The following findings were noted as a result
of an audit conducted by our office of the Eighteen Judicial Circuit, Pettis
County, Missouri.
During April 2003, officials of the Associate
Circuit Division identified discrepancies in the court's collection of costs on
a number of civil cases.� Court personnel
determined that payments totaling at least $2,179 were received but not
deposited from May 2001 through March 2003.�
Information regarding the misappropriation was provided to the
Prosecuting Attorney's office.� The
former court clerk was charged with, pled guilty to, and was sentenced for
felony stealing. As of September 2003, she has made full restitution to the
court for the identified missing funds.�
Our review did not determine any additional undeposited monies.
Several concerns were noted with the
Associate Circuit Division's records and procedures. Receipting and depositing
procedures were not adequate. Additionally, the duties of receipting,
recording, and disbursing monies are not adequately segregated, and the court's
open items (liabilities) listings had not been reconciled to available cash
balances since April 2001.� Subsequent to
the theft and a review by personnel of the Office of the State Court
Administrator, the Associate Circuit Division has implemented improved controls
and procedures.
The court has not implemented adequate
procedures to periodically monitor and dispose of bond monies being held in the
bank account.� As of September 30, 2003,
the court's bank account held bond monies totaling approximately $42,900.� This amount includes a $7,000 cash bond received
in March 2002 which was not transmitted to the Circuit Court when the related
case was bound over to that court in April 2002.
Monitoring procedures related to accrued case
costs are not adequate.� As of August
2003, there was over $266,800 in accrued case costs.� By not adequately monitoring accrued costs,
these costs could remain uncollected and might eventually result in lost
revenue.