Report No. 2010-162
December 2010
Complete Audit Report

Findings in the audit of Dent County

Collector and Property Tax System Controls and Procedures
The County Collector indicated he periodically reconciles his six bank accounts; however, such reconciliations were not documented and lists of liabilities were not prepared for any of these accounts. Because of various receipting and depositing procedural weaknesses, a reconciliation of the composition of receipts to deposits cannot be performed and there is less assurance all monies collected are properly recorded and deposited. The County Clerk does not maintain an account book or other records summarizing property tax transactions and changes, and no evidence was provided to indicate procedures are performed by the County Clerk or the County Commission to verify the County Collector's monthly and annual settlements. Passwords, which restrict access to the property tax computer system, are shared between employees of the County Collector's office and have not been changed for several years. The County Collector is not properly monitoring tourism tax collections.

Sheriff Controls and Procedures
Adequate procedures have not been established to ensure all unpaid costs for jail board bills and paper service fees are adequately identified and pursued. As a result, the Sheriff's department was unable to accurately determine the total costs due. Accounting duties are not adequately segregated. Receipts are not deposited in a timely manner, and the method of payment (cash, check, or money order) is not always accurately indicated on receipt slips and reconciled to the composition of deposits. Most invoices for Sheriff department purchases were not approved by the Sheriff. In addition, Sheriff department reviews of monthly billing statements were not documented and adequate supporting documentation was not submitted to the County Clerk's office. The Sheriff's department has not entered into written agreements with most surrounding counties and cities for board of prisoners.

Prosecuting Attorney Controls and Procedures
An unidentified cash balance of $13,250 remains in bank accounts maintained by the former Prosecuting Attorney and various accounting records from the former Prosecuting Attorney's tenure were not available. As a result of the significant control weaknesses, there is no assurance all receipts were deposited and accounted for properly. Bank reconciliations for the bank account opened by the current Prosecuting Attorney are not adequately performed, and accounting duties are not adequately segregated. The Prosecuting Attorney does not account for the numerical sequence of receipt numbers assigned by the computer system and does not have an adequate system to account for the disposition of all bad checks submitted to the office for collection.

Personnel Policies and Procedures
The county allows employees to accrue compensatory time in violation of its own policy, which has provided employees excessive compensatory time accruals, and results in a greater financial burden for the county. Adequate reviews of compensatory time records maintained by the County Clerk's office were not performed, and several discrepancies were noted between timesheets and compensatory time records. Timesheets submitted by the Sheriff's department were not signed by the Sheriff. In addition, some timesheets were not signed by Sheriff's department employees and some requests for compensatory time or time off were not approved by the Sheriff. The county's personnel policy does not adequately address holiday pay. As a result, not all employees receive the same amount of holiday pay each year. Some full-time Sheriff department personnel received compensation beyond their regular pay for transporting prisoners while "off duty;" however, these payments were not reported on Forms W-2 and payroll deductions were not withheld.

Public Administrator Controls and Procedures
The Associate Circuit Court has not established procedures to adequately monitor the activity of cases assigned to the Public Administrator. Checks received by the Public Administrator on behalf of wards are held for extended periods of time and are not restrictively endorsed until the deposit is prepared. The Public Administrator does not distribute fees from the accounts of some wards on a timely basis and does not maintain adequate records to track and monitor fees and expenses incurred, approved, and distributed for each ward.

Recorder of Deeds Controls and Procedures
Adequate controls and procedures over passport fees have not been established. Receipt slips are not issued for passport processing fees received, some disbursements appeared unnecessary and/or inappropriate, and formal budgets are not prepared for the Passport Fund. Monthly bank reconciliations were not prepared for the Recorder of Deeds' bank accounts and the monthly list of liabilities for the fee account was not reconciled to the cash balance.

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