YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

September 8, 1999
Report No. 99-72

IMPORTANT: The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Harrison, which do not have a county auditor. However, to assist such counties in meeting federal audit requirements, the State Auditor will also perform a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds every two years. This voluntary service to Missouri counties can only be provided when state auditing resources are available and does not interfere with the State Auditor's constitutional responsibility of auditing state government.

Once every four years, the State Auditor's statutory audit will cover additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials, as required by Missouri's Constitution.

This audit of Harrison County included additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials. The following concerns were noted as part of the audit:

During 1997 and 1998, Prosecuting Attorney and Sheriff's fees totaling $105,940 were collected and deposited to the General Revenue Fund. The audit questioned whether these amounts should have been paid to the schools as fines, given applicable court procedures and that the respective sections of law had been repealed effective July of 1997. The Court responded that this has now been addressed according to statutes and the County Commission responded that they would work with the schools to resolve this.

Also included in the audit are recommendations to improve bidding and budgetary procedures. The audit also suggested improvements to accounting controls of the Circuit Clerk, Sheriff and Public Administrator.

Complete Audit Report