YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Bollinger, 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 Bollinger 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 is in poor financial condition.  The county’s General Revenue Fund has been experiencing a declining cash balance.  For 2000, the county budgeted receipts of $944,793 and disbursements of $1,015,507, resulting in an estimated ending negative cash balance of approximately $66,000.  In 1999, the county had a cash balance of only $4,612 in their General Revenue Fund, however the county passed a year 2000 budget that allowed increases in  disbursements to exceed anticipated increases in receipts.  

• The county does not have written agreements with various political subdivisions and individuals.  As noted in our four prior audits, the Sheriff provides dispatching services to an area municipality and an ambulance district.  In addition, the county jail is used to board prisoners for other entities.  No written agreements exist with these entities regarding the amounts to be paid or the services to be provided.  Furthermore, though approved in the budgetary process, there are no written agreements between the county and the Public Administrator or the county and the Prosecuting Attorney for rent and utilities, as well as with the Prosecuting Attorney for the percentage of three secretaries’ salaries to be paid by the county.  

• The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to keep accurate records of actual time worked by employees, including compensatory time earned, taken, or paid.  In our last five prior reports we noted a similar condition that the time sheets and/or records tracking accumulated leave balances are not maintained for full-time employees of the Ex-Officio Recorder of Deeds, the County Collector, and the Prosecuting Attorney.  Although these records are maintained for employees of the Assessor, Sheriff, and the Road and Bridge department, they are not approved by applicable supervisors.  Thus, the County Commission does not have documentation of work performed to support payroll expenditures and does not maintain centralized records of leave balances and leave used and earned.  

• Also, noted similarly in our prior audit, the county’s listing of general fixed assets is not complete.  State law requires that the county officer of each county department shall annually inspect and inventory county property used by that department with an individual original value of $250 or more and any property with an aggregate original value of $1,000 or more.  

·        There were at least three instances where monies received by the Sheriff’s office totaling $736 were not deposited or were found to be missing.  The Sheriff’s office investigated these instances, but could not determine what happened to these monies.  While most of the monies were recovered, cash custody and record keeping functions need to be segregated.  Some property taken in criminal cases has not been inventoried and many of the items in the evidence room have been held for a long period of time.  As noted in our prior report, the Sheriff has $2,260 in two old bank accounts that has not been properly disbursed.

·        The Circuit Clerk and Ex-Officio Recorder of Deeds does not prepare monthly listings of open items (liabilities) for the fee account.  Copy monies are deposited in the Circuit Clerk’s interest account and used for various office expenditures rather than being remitted to the county treasury.