YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2005-49

July 2005

We identified the following problems with the County Collector's office, during our audit of Crawford County, Missouri.

In conjunction with our required county audit, the State Auditor's Office reviewed the operations of the County Collector's office.  Weaknesses in the internal control and record keeping procedures of the County Collector's office allowed missing monies of approximately $335,000 to go undetected.   Our prior audits of the County Collector's office noted similar weaknesses, however, there has been no significant action taken by the County Collector to remedy the conditions or implement the prior audit recommendations.  The missing monies went undetected due to a lack of segregation and oversight as the County Collector is responsible for most receipting, disbursing, and reconciling duties.  Information regarding these missing monies has been shared with law enforcement authorities.  On July 7, 2005, Daniel Gladden resigned his position as Crawford County Collector.

A comparison of the June 30, 2005, reconciled bank balance to identified liabilities showed total liabilities exceeded the reconciled bank balance by $333,398.  The County Collector was not comparing his reconciled bank balance to liabilities, and subsequent month's collections were needed and being used to make the applicable month's distributions.  As the shortage continued to increase, distributions were made less timely.  In addition, financial activity from July 1 to July 7, 2005, indicated an additional shortage of $1,820 increasing the total to $335,218.

The shortage in the County Collector's account is primarily due to recorded tax receipts not being deposited.  For the period March 1, 2003 to July 7, 2005, there were numerous days where deposits were less than the recorded tax receipts.  Reconciliations of daily receipt records to deposits are not documented and the method of payment is not indicated on many paid tax receipts.  Private car tax monies totaling $148,478 have not been recorded or disbursed.  The County Collector does not distribute taxes on a timely basis and his annual settlements were not accurate.  Bank reconciliations are not prepared as of month end and procedures to account for partial payment receipts, to dispose of old outstanding checks, and to account for insufficient funds checks are not adequate.  In addition, no depository agreement exists with the County Collector's depository bank.

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