YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2000-28
April 25, 2000

During our audit of the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, St. Louis City, Missouri, Circuit Clerk Fund, we identified certain management practices which we believe could be improved. This audit reflects the audit period ending December 31, 1998, the end of the prior Circuit Clerk's term.

The earlier report (Report No. 99-39) noted discrepancies between receipt records for cash bonds, monies deposited into the Finance Department's bank account, and other supporting bond records. Cash bonds of at least $9,300 were taken and receipt records were altered to conceal the shortages. All thefts reported in our earlier audit occurred prior to January 1, 1999.

Criminal Division - Cashier's Office
The Criminal Division's safe was not always locked during the day. The numerical sequence of receipt sips was not accounted for properly, several unexplained changes were made to receipt slips and receipts were not always deposited timely. Some accounting duties were not adequately segregated, adequate information on payments received was not always entered on the computer and reconciliations between receipt slips issued and payments posted on the computer were not always performed. Monthly bank reconciliation procedures were inadequate. An independent reconciliation of receipts, disbursements, and transfers posted to the general ledger was not performed. An open-items listing was not prepared for some items, the Criminal Division had $107,757 in unidentified monies and the bond open-items listing at December 31, 1998, included numerous old bonds.

Costs for Criminal Cases
A listing of accrued costs and restitution was not maintained and some monies were not disbursed properly. Criminal costs billings were not sent on a timely basis, nor was the city reimbursing appropriate criminal cost bills. Crime Victim's Compensation judgments were not collected from defendants assigned to St. Louis City's Medium Security Institution (MSI). The court did not prorate partial payments received on court costs.

Child Support Department
Receipts were not posted to the cash control records timely, nor were they deposited daily. Deposit report totals were not agreed to bank deposits or monies on hand. Bank reconciliations had not been prepared timely. Some accounting duties were not adequately segregated or reviewed by a supervisor. The cash balance exceeded the open-items listing by $281,000 at December 31, 1998 and open-items listings for the Parent Locator and Dissolution bank accounts were not prepared. Listings of held payments were not periodically reviewed. Adjustments totaling $32,890 were made to the November 1998 bank reconciliation for duplicate checks that were issued and cashed.

Missing Records
Various accounting records maintained by the Child Support Department including deposit reports, check registers, and canceled checks for September 1998 to December 1998 were missing. In addition, various accounting records prepared by the Criminal Division including the June 30, 1998, open-items lists, deposit slips, deposit records, canceled checks and case files were missing.

Civil Division
The open-items listing was not accurate and was not periodically reconciled to the applicable cash and investment balance. Computer records and manual records for each case did not always agree and case files did not include some pertinent financial information. Controls over the Cashier's drawers were not adequate and the name of the payor was not entered for each receipt. A printout of non-posted transactions was not periodically printed and reviewed and the mail log was not reconciled to the receipts entered for the day. Disbursements to the city were not always made timely and the court was holding old outstanding checks. Correction forms were not prenumbered and documentation was not maintained in the case files to support changes to the computer. Sixteen checks could not be located and returned checks were not always voided on the computer timely. There was no supervisory review of the disbursements prepared by the Assistant Finance Manager.

Costs for Civil Cases
Upon case closure, civil case files are sent through various departments in the Circuit Clerk's Office and then sent to the Taxing Department. The Taxing Department calculates which charges are due on the case. The taxing information is entered on the inside back cover of each case to summarize charges and disbursements of the case. Once the charges have been taxed, the case file is sent to the File Room.

If the filing fees are equal to or greater than the charges taxed and the plaintiff was ordered to pay court costs, the court costs are applied to the applicable funds for distribution and a refund check is issued, if necessary. For most cases, if the filing fee is less than the charges or the defendant was ordered to pay courts costs, a billing is generated by the Taxing Department and sent to the applicable party. However, monies on hand were not disbursed or refunded until all costs were collected from the proper party.

The court was holding over $8.5 million on cases that had already been finalized or on which additional costs were still due. In addition, second bills for costs due were not sent and court costs were not applied and disbursed on a timely basis. Records were not maintained to document total amounts due to the court and the court did not have procedures to review accrued costs, prorate amounts collected, and write off amounts deemed uncollectible.

The current Circuit Clerk has provided responses throughout the report which are in agreement with our audit's recommendations.

Complete Audit Report