Report No. 2010-75
July 2010
Complete Audit Report

Findings in the audit of Howell County

Grant Monitoring Procedures
The County Commission has not established adequate monitoring procedures to ensure the South Central Drug Task Force, a subrecipient of federal grant funds, is in compliance with applicable grant requirements. The County Commission does not perform a periodic review of task force controls and procedures or periodically request and receive detailed supporting documentation prior to approving grant reimbursement request forms and subsequently reimbursing the task force for grant-related disbursements.

The County Commission did not request or review the audit reports of the task force to ensure compliance with the Single Audit Act and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-133.

Fuel and Vehicle Use
The county did not solicit bids for the fuel purchased through use of fuel cards at a local vendor. The county does not have adequate records, physical controls, and monitoring procedures over road and bridge department fuel use. The County Assessor and two of his employees use county vehicles to commute between their homes and the county courthouse and use county fuel cards to purchase fuel; however, the vehicle logs maintained do not distinguish between personal commuting and county business related mileage and personal mileage is not reported on W-2 forms. The county's procedures for reconciling fuel usage to purchases are inadequate.

Credit and Fuel Cards
The County Clerk does not maintain a list of bank credit cards and fuel cards assigned to various county officials and employees or credit limits. Active credit cards were still assigned to the former Sheriff and 4 terminated Sheriff's office employees. Cardholder assignments and usage are not periodically reviewed to determine the user actually needs a credit card and to evaluate and establish reasonable credit limits. The county carried balances on the Sheriff's bank credit card accounts throughout 2008 and 2009 from purchases made by a former Sheriff over 8 years ago and incurred late fees and finance charges. The list of fuel card assignments maintained by the Sheriff's office was not accurate. While the Sheriff documented his review of fuel bills by signing the bills, his review did not identify that one of the unaccounted for fuel cards was used to purchase fuel.

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 Collector and his employees post changes to the property tax system for all additions and abatements, except for current personal property additions which are posted to the system by the Assessor. The County Clerk does not reconcile the court orders for additions and abatements to the actual changes made to the system. The County Clerk does not prepare or verify the accuracy of the delinquent tax books or the back tax aggregate abstract prepared by the County Collector. Passwords, which restrict access to the property tax computer system used by the offices of the County Collector and Assessor are not routinely changed.

County Collector Controls and Procedures
The County Collector's annual settlements did not include city tax collections and the related charges. The County Collector holds checks received for tax payments from title companies, and he also holds checks received from taxpayers upon their request. The method of payment (cash, check, or money order) is not always correctly recorded in the property tax system and reconciled to deposits.

Sheriff Controls and Procedures
Accounting duties of the Sheriff's office are not adequately segregated, and an adequate supervisory review of accounting records is not performed. Receipt slips are not issued for some inmate/commissary monies received, and the method of payment is not always recorded on receipt slips and reconciled to the composition of deposits. Inmate monies totaling $50 could not be traced to deposit, and receipts are not deposited on a timely basis. Procedures are not in place to routinely identify month-end liabilities and reconcile the liabilities to the cash balance. The Sheriff retains commissary profits in the account and uses them to pay jail expenses which circumvents the county's normal budgeting and disbursement processes. The Sheriff charged booking fees totaling $3,000 and there is not express statutory authority for the Sheriff to charge a booking fee. Receipts for court-ordered paper service fees are not recorded until the related papers are served.

Prosecuting Attorney Controls and Procedures
There was no independent approval to support adjustments and reversals posted to the accounting system, and adequate documentation of such adjustments and reversals was not always retained. The method of payment is not always accurately recorded on the computer system and reconciled to deposits. Accounting duties are not adequately segregated, and there was no evidence of a supervisory review of the accounting records by the office manager or the Prosecuting Attorney.

Public Administrator Controls and Procedures
The Associate Circuit Court has not established procedures to adequately review the settlements of cases assigned to the Public Administrator. The Public Administrator also does not adequately review the settlements prepared by attorneys. The county reimbursed the Public Administrator for mileage traveled; however, she was not required to use the county mileage reimbursement form.

Other Findings
Other findings in the audit report relate to payroll controls and procedures and budget amendments.

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