YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

December 20, 2002

Report No. 2002-118

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Gasconade, which do not have a county auditor.  However, to assist such counties in meeting federal audit requirements, the State Auditor will also provide 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 it 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 Gasconade 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 approved budget documents for the General Revenue and the Special Road and Bridge Funds did not adequately project the anticipated financial condition for the funds.
  
  
• The county received approximately $5,500 more in state assessment fund reimbursements in 2001 than entitled.  The County Clerk did not reconcile assessment reimbursement claims to actual expenditures.
  
  
• 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 Gasconade County's Associate County Commissioners salaries were each increased approximately $10,253 yearly, 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 $20,506 for the two years ended December 31, 2000 should be repaid.

• A listing of accrued costs owed to the Circuit court was not maintained by the Circuit Clerk, and monitoring procedures for accrued costs was not adequate  As of June 2002, accrued costs totaled approximately $429,500, of which approximately $120,000 was waiting to be written off as uncollectible.

Complete Audit Report