Report No. 2010-129
October 2010
Complete Audit Report

Findings in the audit of the Andrew County Ambulance District

Payroll Records and Procedures
Significant amounts of overtime have been paid to the Director, at varying rates, and some payments for overtime were made without Board approval and without a time sheet to support the hours worked. Over $19,000 in overtime was paid to the Director from January 2008 through May 2010. Vacation and sick leave payouts totaling $19,712 were made to the Director and vacation leave payouts totaling $5,689 were made to some other employees; however, the payments were not authorized by personnel policies or employment contracts, or otherwise approved by the Board. Payroll taxes were not paid timely, resulting in penalties and interest. The Board approved and paid incentives to the Director and other employees, but these payments were not subject to tax withholdings and were not reported on W-2 forms. Some employees were allowed to earn more annual and sick leave than allowed by the district personnel policy or employment contracts. Travel advances are given occasionally to employees when traveling on district business, but no supporting documentation is later submitted to show how monies were spent.

Debit and Credit Cards
Controls do not exist over credit and debit cards to ensure purchases are reasonable and proper. Supporting documentation was not available for some credit and debit card transactions. Support for reimbursements of non-district personnel charges on credit and debit cards is insufficient.

Disbursements
The Board does not adequately document its review and approval of all disbursements and acknowledgment of receipt of goods or services is not always documented on invoices. Documentation is not always retained demonstrating how particular vendors are selected when bids are taken. The district made three purchases during 2009 and 2008 from a business owned by Board Member Schneider each of which exceeded $500 and should have been bid per state law. In addition, the district did not issue some Forms 1099-MISC when required.

401(k) Plan
The district has participated in a 401(k) retirement plan since 2005; however, the district has not paid the 3 percent employer match obligation to the broker since the inception of the plan. In addition, the district did not adequately ensure all 401(k) employee contributions were submitted and made timely, and in one instance, employee contributions from the payroll period December 10, 2008, totaling $608, were not submitted at all.

Policies and Budgets
Accounting duties are not adequately segregated, and the Board does not provide oversight of the accounting functions. All accounts receivable write-offs are entered into the system as non-monetary adjustments in order to clear the balance owed, but these adjustments are not reviewed or verified by an independent person. Although the employee personnel policy manual indicates it was updated in March 2009, there is no evidence the Board formally approved the new manual. Policies regarding sick leave for employees were left out of the manual and the manual does not address the employee evaluation process. Budgets approved by the Board do not contain all elements required by state law.

Meetings
The district did not always ensure compliance with the Sunshine Law, Chapter 610, RSMo. Minutes from some closed meetings were not sufficient to demonstrate that issues discussed were allowable under the Sunshine Law, and open meeting minutes did not always document the reasons for going into closed meetings.

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