Report No. 2010-151
November 2010
Complete Audit Report

Findings in the audit of Audrain County

Property Tax System Controls and Procedures
The County Commission and County Clerk do not perform adequate or timely reviews of property tax additions and abatements. The County Clerk does not reconcile the court orders for additions and abatements to actual changes made to the property tax system. As a result, additions and abatements are not properly monitored and errors or irregularities could go undetected. In addition, the account book maintained by the County Clerk is not complete and no evidence was provided to indicate procedures are performed by the County Commission to verify the County Collector's monthly or annual settlements. As a result, neither the County Clerk nor the County Commission detected a $14,253 discrepancy between real estate additions reported on the County Collector's 2009 annual settlement and real estate additions reported on the computer system.

County Collector's Controls and Procedures
The County Collector does not compare the reconciled bank account balances to existing liabilities.

County Policies and Procedures
The county did not comply with state law and document its evaluation and selection of engineering services. Although the county employs a full-time engineer, the county disbursed a total of $148,629 and $93,067 during 2009 and 2008, respectively, for outside engineering services. Mileage/use logs do not indicate the purpose of the travel and the county does not report taxable benefits associated with county vehicles used for commuting purposes.

Sheriff's Controls and Procedures
Compensatory (overtime) balances for Sheriff office employees are excessive and could potentially be a significant liability to the county. At May 9, 2010, Sheriff office employees had accumulated 14,316 hours of compensatory time valued at approximately $180,000. We identified 18 employees who were allowed to accumulate a total of 5,947 hours of compensatory time in excess of maximum amounts allowed by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. County funds were deposited into the Auxiliary bank account which is held outside the county treasury. The county has not reviewed the potential liability or appropriateness of an arrangement between the Sheriff and local schools for security services provided, and written agreements have not been entered into with the schools. A monthly bank reconciliation is not prepared for the commissary account, and a monthly list of liabilities is not prepared and agreed to the reconciled balance. In addition, the amount assumed to be profit each month is retained in the bank account outside the county treasury.

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