Report No. 2008-41
July 2008
Complete Audit Report

IMPORTANT: The Missouri State Auditor is required by state law to conduct audits once every four years in counties, such as Schuyler, 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 the Missouri Constitution.

Budgetary and financial statement procedures are in need of improvement. The approved budget document did not adequately project anticipated disbursements and the ending cash balance for some county funds. For several funds, budgets included erroneous classifications of receipts, disbursements, and transfers. In addition, the County Commission budgeted deficit fund balances for the General Revenue Fund in the 2008, 2007, and 2006 budgets. Also, the county’s annual published financial statements did not include the detailed information required by state statute.

The financial condition of the General Revenue Fund is deteriorating. The cash balance of the fund has declined from $117,408 at December 31, 2004 to $81,417 at December 31, 2007. However, the 2007 balance would have been much lower if the General Revenue Fund had not borrowed from the Special Road and Bridge Fund. As of December 31, 2007, the General Revenue Fund owed the Special Road and Bridge Fund $60,227.

The county has not adopted procedures to monitor or assess the results of the actual sales tax rollbacks and to consider any differences noted in prior years when calculating the current year’s rollback. As a result, property tax collections were not sufficiently offset by 50 percent of sales taxes collected, resulting in excess collections of approximately $12,500 at December 31, 2007.

County property records are not adequate and records of fuel usage for road and bridge vehicles and equipment are not adequately reviewed. Periodic reconciliations of the fuel usage and purchases to the calculated fuel on hand are not performed.

Time sheets are not prepared by county employees, other than dispatchers and road and bridge employees. The payroll clerk pays employees that do not submit time sheets the same amount each pay period unless told otherwise. Some sheriff’s department employees are salaried and work overtime; however, no record is maintained of the overtime worked. In addition, the County Clerk’s office does not maintain centralized records of leave or compensatory balances or the associated liabilities.

The county did not always solicit bids or bid documentation was not always retained for various purchases. The county does not always solicit proposals or retain documentation of proposals for engineering services. As a result, there was no evidence that the best qualified firm was selected for engineer’s fees totaling approximately $12,770 during 2006.

Policies and procedures over the sale of road and bridge materials are not adequate. As a result of the lack of consistent policies and procedures, the county does not have one complete record of all sales of materials and may be purchasing materials for use by individuals and not recouping the costs. In addition, inventory records of materials are not maintained. Similar conditions were noted in our prior report.

The Ex Officio Recorder of Deed’s office procedures related to receipts and disbursements are in need of improvement. Monies received are not always deposited intact. Some monies received are held from the deposits to make change and purchase postage. When tracing manual receipt slips to the Ex Officio Recorder’s ledger and deposit slips, we noted four instances where the monies were not posted to the ledger or deposited. The Ex Officio Recorder indicated that these monies must have been placed in the change fund. In addition, prenumbered receipt slips are not issued for some recording fees received, the numerical sequence of receipt slips is not accounted for, and the composition of receipt slips issued is not reconciled to the composition of deposits.

Cash custody and accounting duties have not been adequately segregated in the Sheriff’s office. Although bank reconciliations are prepared, the bank reconciliations are not complete and the bank balance is not reconciled to a monthly listing of open items (liabilities). The Sheriff’s office should disburse all monies monthly; however, the reconciled bank balance was $1,183, which included inmate monies from a 1997 police investigation, a bond received during 2000, and mileage reimbursements received from the courts for summonses served during 2003, 2004, and 2005. In addition, receipt procedures are in need of improvement.

The audit also includes recommendations to improve procedures for approving and paying invoices, mileage reimbursement requests submitted by the Sheriff, and Public Administrator fees. Additional concerns regarding controls were noted for the Assessor.

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