YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2000-06
January 25, 2000

The following problems were discovered as a result of a review conducted by our office of the Miller County Sheriff's Department.

On May 16, 1998, the Sheriff held a sale of surplus and unclaimed property. The sale advertisement stated that more than 200 surplus and unclaimed items were to be sold; however, a complete listing of all items to be sold was not prepared and retained. In addition, a complete listing of all monies received was not maintained. The final settlement record signed by the auctioneer indicated sale proceeds totaled $5,818. However, copies of receipt slips retained by the Sheriff's office totaled only $5,661. Without a complete listing of items to be sold and those actually sold and for what amounts, the Sheriff has less assurance that all sale proceeds were accounted for properly.

Some sale proceeds were not collected the day of the sale. The Sheriff's father did not pay for his purchases ($822) until a week later, and the Sheriff did not pay for items he purchased ($275) at the sale until July 1998. In May 1999, the Sheriff paid $260 to the County Treasurer to cover a shortage that was noted when a reconciliation was prepared of sale proceeds to amounts turned over to the County Treasurer.

Also, at the time of the sale, the Sheriff's procedure was to charge a $5 gun permit fee for all gun permits issued, except for those permits issued to individuals involved in law enforcement or the judicial system. However, the Sheriff did not require his father to pay gun permit fees for the six permits issued to him for guns purchased at the sale. The Sheriff stated that his father is not involved in law enforcement or the judicial system.

Balances on deposit for inmates exceeded the balance in the Inmate Account by $148. From June 1998, when this account was opened, until August 1999, more than $20,000 of commissary inventory was purchased from this account to be resold to inmates at a ten percent mark up. However, as of August 1999, the balance in the account showed no profit, and no monies had been paid over to the county's General Revenue Fund.

In addition, improvement is needed in the accounting controls and procedures for other receipts and activities of the Sheriff's office. Cash receipt and disbursement records are not complete, and bank reconciliations are not performed for the various accounts. Three bonds totaling $1,580 were collected by the Sheriff's office and not deposited. Two were discovered missing when the court notified the office it had not received the bonds. A third missing bond was detected during our audit. Many of these concerns were also noted in a prior report issued by our office.

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