YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

September 10, 2001

Report No. 2001-83

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Marion, 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 Marion County was a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds.  The following concerns were noted: 

• A state law, Section 50.333.12, 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 their terms were increased from two years to four.  Based on this law, in 1999 Marion County’s Associate County Commissioners salaries were each increased approximately $7,400 according to information from the county clerk.

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 $14,800, for the two years ended December 31, 2000, should be repaid.  

• Budgets were not prepared for some special revenue funds.  In addition, the county did not appear to have a reasonable basis for the budgeted amounts for several funds.  Budgeted projections clearly exceeded prior historical information and, as a result, the budgets lacked reasonableness and could not be used as a monitoring tool.  

• The county’s schedule of expenditures of federal awards contained various errors and omissions for the years ended December 31, 2000 and 1999.  The schedule should be accurately prepared to ensure all federal awards are properly reported.

• Bank balances are not reconciled to inmate account balances by the Sheriff’s office.  In addition, the numerical sequence of receipt slips are not accounted for, and the composition of receipt slips are not reconciled to the composition of deposits for the inmate account.

The audit also includes some matters related to the County Treasurer’s and the Health Center’s records and controls, upon which the county should consider and take appropriate corrective action.

Complete Audit Report