YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
|
YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
Report No.
2000-109
October 11, 2000
The following findings were noted as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Ex-Officio County Collector, Dunklin County, Missouri.
State statute requires the state auditor to
audit the office of the County Collector after being notified of a vacancy in
that office. On April 30, 2000, a
vacancy occurred in the office of the Ex-Officio County Collector of Dunklin
County, Missouri; a successor was appointed effective May 1, 2000.
Monthly listings of liabilities are not
prepared and reconciled to cash balances.
Several errors occurred during the audit period and were not detected in
a timely manner because of the lack of such reconciliations. For example, $10,484 received and deposited
in June 1999 was not disbursed to applicable political subdivisions until April
2000.
As of April 30, 2000, the reconciled bank
balance was approximately $43,000 more than April distributions including
unidentified monies totaling $18,092 and undistributed interest totaling
$18,099. The Ex-Officio County
Collector has not distributed interest for several years.
Additionally, tax receipts and other monies
received are not reconciled to the composition of bank deposits. The Ex-Officio County Collector does not
post the paid tax bills to the accounting records on a daily basis or generate
a daily abstract.
For the year ended February 29, 2000, the
annual settlement of the Ex-Officio County Collector had not been completed and
filed with the County Commission as of June 2000. State law requires
settlements be filed with the County Commission. In addition, timely completion of the settlement is necessary to
permit the prompt review and verification of the tax book charges and credits.
The audit also recommended improvements
related to bank reconciliations, drainage and levee district records, purchases
made from political subdivisions’ tax monies, and excess interest transferred
to the County Special Road and Bridge Fund.