YELLOW SHEET

Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill

October 29, 1999
Report No. 99-103

The Sixth Judicial Circuit Court consists of Platte County. During our audit, we identified a certain management practice which we believe could be improved.

Missouri state law allows for the reimbursement of certain costs in criminal cases where the state has been rendered liable. The Sheriff is to certify the number of prisoner incarceration days and the Circuit Clerk is responsible for preparing and submitting cost bills to the state for reimbursement. The revenue generated by these billings is received by the county. State law requires such bills to be submitted to the state's Office of Administration within two years of the date of judgement and sentence.

Our review of the handling of these billings disclosed the Circuit Clerk does not submit criminal cost billings to the state for incarceration costs related to defendants where the court retained the option of granting probation to the defendant after 120 days. The Circuit Clerk indicated that she was not aware criminal cost billings could be submitted to the state in these instances.

During the period from January 1, 1996 through December 31, 1998, the court handled seventy such cases, involving billable costs totaling $47,385. As of July 1, 1999, twenty-one of these cases, involving billable costs of $11,429, exceeded the two-year time limit and this amount represents revenue lost to the county. The remaining cases, involving billable costs of approximately $35,956, were still billable as of July 1, 1999. The State Auditor recommended that the Circuit Clerk take timely action to ensure the billable costs related to these cases are billed before the two-year limit expires. The audit also disclosed that while other applicable cases (non-120 day cases) were generally billed properly, a 1996 case involving billable costs of $4,012 was not billed to the state, resulting in additional lost revenue to the county.

In a response to the finding, the Presiding Circuit Judge indicated that in June 1999, when this matter was first brought to the Circuit Clerk's attention, action was taken to begin billing the state for those 120 day cases that were within the two year billing limit. In addition, for those cases which have occurred since the audit, the applicable costs have been billed and a tracking system has been established to better identify the applicable costs to be billed in the future.

In regard to follow-up action taken by the Sixth Judicial Circuit on recommendations made in our last audit report, these recommendations had been partially or fully implemented.

Complete Audit Report


Missouri State Auditor's Office
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