Report No. 2008-02
January 2008
Complete Audit Report
IMPORTANT: A review of audits of fire protection districts in Greene County has been completed. This review covered reports for the year(s) ended December 31, 2006 that were required to be submitted to the State Auditor’s office within six months after the year end. Additionally, some districts' audit reports that had not been submitted during our previous review were included in this review.
State law requires Greene County fire protection districts with revenues in excess of $50,000 annually to cause an audit to be performed on a biennial basis. For those districts with annual revenues of less than $50,000, the State Auditor may exempt the district from the audit requirement if the appropriate reports are filed. For those districts for which an audit is required, the district must file a copy of the completed audit report and management letter with the State Auditor within six months after the close of the fiscal year. At December 31, 2006 there were twelve fire protection districts in Greene County.
The State Auditor’s Office accepted all seven audit reports that were received for the year(s) ended December 31, 2006. However, instances of non-compliance including the lack of district responses to recommendations, the lack of follow-up to previous recommendations, and the lack of required report schedules were still noted.
The Fair Grove Fire Protection District failed to comply with Section 321.690, RSMo by not submitting an audit report to the State Auditor's Office for the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005. As a result, their information is not presented in this report. Similar noncompliance has been reported for this district in previous years.
The timeliness of reporting has improved during the last year, with only one of the seven reports received for the year(s) ended December 31, 2006 failing to comply with the statutory deadline. However, noncompliance was still noted from 2005. For example, the Ash Grove and Bois D' Arc Fire Protection Districts (identified in our prior report as failing to comply with Section 321.690) did not submit audit reports for the years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004 until April 2007 and November 2007, respectively. While not only required by statute, timely audits also provide information to the board and district taxpayers on the financial status of the district.
This report includes information about the districts’ revenues, expenditures, and balances, capital assets, assessed valuations, and tax levies. A summary of comments made by the various districts’ independent auditors included concerns regarding conflicts of interest, expenditures, budgets, compliance with laws and regulations, and accounting procedures.
Complete Audit Report
Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@auditor.mo.gov
