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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
Report No. 2000-46
June 19,2000
The following areas of concern were discovered as a result of a review conducted by our office of the Highway Reciprocity Commission.
Under the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA), the Highway Reciprocity Commission (HRC) is responsible for collecting and distributing motor fuel taxes from Missouri based licensees. Under the agreement, each Missouri based over the road carrier is required to hold an IFTA license, file quarterly fuel tax returns, and remit the applicable taxes.
The IFTA agreement states that if the commission exercises its right to require that a bond be posted, the bond should be at least twice the estimated average tax liability. Of the 23 carriers we reviewed which were required to post a bond, eight failed to post a sufficient bond.
As a result of an internal audit, the HRC has established a procedure of completing and filing a reinstatement checklist when reinstating revoked carriers. Although the HRC has established this procedure, we noted that a reinstatement checklist was either not completed at all, or was incomplete for some carriers we reviewed.
Our review of the "IFTA Carriers With A Bond" report revealed that the HRC is holding 27 cash bonds, totaling $13,500, for accounts that have been closed. Bonds are not automatically refunded when an account is closed. In addition, the HRC is holding bond monies for 36 non-renewed accounts totaling $18,000.
The HRC mails other jurisdictions a monthly letter notifying the respective jurisdiction of the net amount of fuel taxes due to or from the Sate of Missouri related to IFTA transactions. Reimbursements received remain in the commission's holding account until the reimbursement documentation has been processed. As of December 1999, reimbursements of approximately $1 million, dating as far back as March 1998, remained in the holding account.
If the additional registration fees for temporary permits are not received within 20 days of billing, the HRC places the carrier on the Missouri Highway Patrol Bulletin until the fees are paid or for a period of three years. If unpaid for three years these accounts are considered uncollectible, and are written off. The employee responsible for determining which accounts are to be written off is the same employee that bills the carriers and receipts monies.
Concerns were also noted with the edit function of the HRC's computerized receipt system and with the inability of the system to generate a change report.
