YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
Report No. 2006-60
September 2006
IMPORTANT: The Missouri State Auditor is required by state law to conduct audits once every 4 years in counties, like Lincoln, that do not have a county auditor. In addition to a financial audit of various county operating funds, the State Auditor's statutory audit covers additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials, as required by Missouri's Constitution.
The County Commission held several closed sessions during the two years ended December 31, 2005. Open session minutes typically will indicate the meeting is being closed, but the specific reason is not documented. In addition, minutes for some closed sessions were not taken, and the county did not document how some topics discussed in closed session were allowable under the law.
Payments were made to the Elsberry Road District and the Industrial Development Authority without proper written contracts. During the two years ended December 31, 2005, the county made payments totaling $663,007 and $510,096 to the special road district and appropriated $18,000 to the IDA for advertisement and promoting economic development. The county also did not obtain documentation from the road district or the IDA of how these funds were expended.
The county donated two vans to not-for-profit organizations with no written contract indicating how the vehicles would be utilized by the organizations. In addition, the county appropriated $18,000 to a senior citizen meals on wheels program without entering into a written contract. The Missouri Constitution prohibits the use of public money or property to benefit any private individual, associations, or corporations except as provided in the constitution.
The Road and Bridge Department, Juvenile office, and County Commissioners do not maintain vehicle usage logs to document how vehicles are used. In addition, the Road and Bridge Department and the County Commission fill their vehicles from the county�s bulk fuel tanks. The county does not maintain logs of fuel dispensed into these vehicles. Also, the County does not adequately monitor the records of fuel dispensed to the Sheriff Department�s and Special Services Director�s vehicles. Without adequate vehicle fuel and usage logs, the county cannot effectively monitor that vehicles are used for official business only, that maintenance and fuel costs for vehicles are reasonable, and that fuel and maintenance billings to the county represent legitimate and appropriate charges.
The county and Health Center do not have adequate procedures in place to track federal awards for the preparation of the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA), and as a result, the county's SEFA contained several errors and omissions. Expenditures
were understated by $58,168 and by $157,865 for the years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004, respectively.
In the Circuit Clerk�s office, approximately $3,800 received was not deposited. In September of 2005, an investigation was conducted by the Circuit Clerk's office with the help of a consulting firm, and one employee was placed on unpaid leave; however, the missing monies have not been recovered. Charges were filed against the employee and a trial began in June of 2006. The discrepancies were not detected due to various internal control weaknesses. While some changes were made, the Circuit Clerk's office does not account for the numerical sequence of manual receipt slips and trace all manual receipt slips to the JIS, nor does the Circuit Court adequately follow up on bonds posted by defendants who fail to make the required court appearances.
In the Collector�s office, recordkeeping duties in the office have not been adequately segregated , and reconciliations are not performed between the partial payment ledger and the reconciled bank balance. In addition, monthly liability listings are not prepared and reconciled with cash balances. Commissions and fees withheld from one school district were computed incorrectly, due to an incorrect ratio being used resulting in approximately $37,000 being over withheld from one school district and deposited into the General Revenue and Assessment Funds.
In the Sheriff�s office, some monies are not deposited intact and accounting duties are not adequately segregated. In addition, the office does not have written contracts with some political subdivisions to house prisoners and a policy has not been established to follow-up on unpaid incarceration costs. Commissary commissions are not turned over to the county treasury and monthly listings of liabilities for the Commissary Account are not adequately reconciled to the book balance. The reconciliation has two �unknown� categories; however, these �unknown� differences fluctuate each month and there was no documentation to indicate the changes had been properly investigated.
Other areas where concerns were noted related to computer controls and the property tax system. In addition, the audit included recommendations to the Prosecuting Attorney and the Law Library Custodian.