Auditor Seal

YELLOW SHEET

Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2006-25

May 2006

 

We identified the following concerns with the Monroe City Ambulance District. 


Various concerns were noted related to expenditures including failure to retain invoices for some expenditures and a lack of adequate documentation of amounts reimbursed by employees and students for purchases made on their behalf.  The district does not have written bidding or travel policies and during the year ended September 30, 2005, the district paid approximately $16,000 for dispatching services for which there was no written contract.  The district does not reconcile fuel purchases to billing statements and failed to prepare IRS Form 1099-MISC for the medical director and legal services.    In addition, the district made expenditures which do not appear to be prudent uses of public funds including Christmas gifts to employees, retirement dinners totaling $964 for two board members, and various other miscellaneous items. 

 

During the year ended September 30, 2005, the district billed approximately $225,000 for ambulance services and collected approximately $165,000.  Internal control weaknesses in the ambulance services accounts receivable procedures include inadequate segregation of duties, failure to perform periodic reconciliations of accounts receivable records, and failure to develop a written policy for the write-off of uncollectible accounts receivable.  In addition, the district has not updated its contract with the collection agency since 1998. District records indicate that during the year ended September 30, 2005, accounts receivable totaling $32,407 were turned over to the collection agency and $2,057 was recorded as bad debt recovery.  Professional write-offs of ambulance billings totaling $1,632 were noted.

 

Open meeting minutes did not always document the specific reasons for closing meetings and minutes were not always prepared to document matters discussed in closed meetings in accordance with Chapter 610, RSMo (the Sunshine Law).

 

The district does not maintain a listing of fixed assets.  In addition, the district does not perform annual physical inventories and does not tag fixed assets as property of the district. 

 

Time worked for administrative duties are not recorded on employee time sheets.  In addition, time sheets prepared by paramedics and EMTs do not include documentation of supervisory approval.

 

Although the board did not agree with all of the recommendations included in the report, their responses were generally positive and indicated they have implemented or are in the process of implementing many of the recommendations.

 

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Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@auditor.mo.gov