YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

September 27, 2001

Report No. 2001-100

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

• A state law, Section 50.333.13, RSMo, enacted in 1997, allowed salary commissions meeting in 1997 to provide mid-term salary increases for associate county commissioners elected in 1996 due to the fact that their terms were increased from two years to four.  Based on this law, in 1999 Lewis County’s Associate County Commissioners salaries were each increased approximately $5,440 yearly.

On May 15, 2001, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down an opinion that holds that all raises given pursuant to this statute section are unconstitutional.  Based on the Supreme Court decision, the raises given to each of the Associate County Commissioners, totaling approximately $10,880 for the two years ended December 31, 2000, should be repaid. 

• As noted in three prior reports, the County Collector does not perform monthly reconciliations between the bank balance and the monthly statement of collections and other monies which were undistributed.  There has been very little action by the County Collector to remedy the condition or implement the prior recommendations.

• The Public Administrator does not perform monthly bank reconciliations.  In addition, several instances were noted where amounts due for services or products received by wards were not paid timely by the Public Administrator.  Funds were available to pay these bills when they were due.

Also included in the audit are recommendations to improve the county’s budgetary practices and published financial statements.  In addition, the audit recommended improvements in the accounting controls and procedures of the Prosecuting Attorney, Sheriff and the Health Center.   Several of these issues had been noted in prior audits.

Complete Audit Report