YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2000-106
September 27, 2000

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Livingston, 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 Livingston County included additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials.  The following concerns were noted as part of the audit: 

• The county prepared a schedule of expenditures of federal awards for the years ended December 31, 1999 and 1998; however, the information presented for many of the programs did not agree with the county’s expenditure records.  Without an accurate schedule, federal financial activity may not be audited and reported in accordance with federal audit requirements which could result in future reductions of federal funds. 
  
  
• The county has decentralized payroll procedures and the county’s policies regarding overtime and compensatory time do not clearly support or describe current procedures.  The County Clerk’s office does not maintain records of vacation leave for any county employees and does not maintain records of compensatory time earned or subsequently taken by Sheriff’s department employees.  Payments, totaling approximately $2,800, made to a Sheriff’s department employee for accumulated compensatory time balances were made without sufficient review by the County Clerk’s office and without adequate documentation to support the hours and amount.  
  
  
• Numerous problems were noted regarding the Sheriff’s accounting controls and procedures including; an inadequate segregation of duties; receipts not always being recorded or deposited intact in a timely manner;  receipts slips not being issued for some inmate monies received; checks and money orders not being endorsed promptly, and, no reconciliation of the composition of receipt slips to the composition of bank deposits.  In addition, bank reconciliations and comparisons of reconciled cash balances to related liabilities had not been performed for the Sheriff's general and inmate bank accounts since March 1998 and February 1999, respectively. The Sheriff also needs to improve procedures related to monitoring and collecting unpaid incarceration costs.
  

Also included in the audit are recommendations to improve the accounting controls and procedures for the Ex Officio County Collector,  Juvenile Officer, and  Public Administrator.

Complete Audit Report