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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
May 13, 2002
Report No. 2002-37
The following problems
were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Office
of Administration, Missouri Ethics Commission.
The
Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) is required by state law to establish an
electronic reporting system for lobbyist, campaign finance, and personal
financial disclosure reporting. �The MEC
has not complied with the provisions of these laws in a timely manner.
State
law required the commission to have an electronic lobbyist reporting system
ready by January 1, 1998, and to make lobbyist information available to the
public on an internet web site by January 1, 1999.� However, the commission did not complete the lobbyist reporting
system until October 1999, and the internet web site was not established until
December 2000.� State law required the
commission to establish an electronic campaign finance disclosure reporting
system in time for the 1998 elections. However, the commission did not have the
electronic system operational until November 2001, and was available for use
starting with the quarterly reports due April 15, 2002.
The
commission contracted with a vendor to develop the electronic systems for
lobbyist and campaign finance disclosure reporting, which cost the state
$472,000.� The audit noted concerns
related to how the commission administered the contracts for the development of
the electronic reporting systems and said these systems should have been
implemented in a more timely manner.� The
commission experienced several problems with the contractor's software and
ultimately filed lawsuits against the vendor.�
After settlement of the lawsuits, the commission was still not satisfied
that the systems were functioning properly.�
As a result, the commission decided to scrap the vendor's systems and
develop the systems in-house.
The
audit also questioned why the commission did not implement an electronic
reporting system for personal financial disclosure.� The commission does not believe the law requires an electronic
system, but agreed to ask the Attorney General for his interpretation of the
law.
The
MEC's current reporting systems do not allow users functionality similar to other
state's web sites.� Missouri's lobbyist
system only allows users to access a list of lobbyists and principals, view
lobbyist monthly reports filed (since December 2000), and do searches for
lobbyist expenditures made for or on behalf of certain state elected officials
only.� Other states allow searches based
on user defined criteria and the ability to sort, summarize, and download
information from the system.
The
MEC's enforcement authority is often limited or non-existent because the state
laws are vague, confusing, inconsistent, and contain numerous exceptions to the
various reporting requirements.� The
report notes examples and recommends the MEC pursue statutory changes to ensure
the laws include appropriate enforcement provisions.
The
MEC did not assess penalties for late filings of monthly expenditure reports by
lobbyists from January 1, 1998 through January 31, 2001. �In addition, the MEC has not assessed
penalties for late campaign finance disclosure reports since 1997.� The purpose of the late filing penalty is to
encourage compliance with the timeliness requirements of the applicable
statutes.� Failure to assess these
penalties nullifies their deterrent effect and could lead to greater
noncompliance.� In addition, the law
does not authorize the MEC to postpone the billing of these penalties; instead,
it requires the MEC to provide timely notification to late and/or non-filers.
The
law requires the MEC to review and audit lobbyist reports, campaign finance
disclosure reports, and personal financial disclosure reports.� However, the MEC does not audit these
reports unless a complaint is filed under state law.� It appears the MEC is adequately reviewing reports for timeliness
and ensuring these reports are filled out properly and signed.� In addition, the MEC performs some
crosschecks.� However, the MEC cannot
determine if reports are accurate and complete unless the MEC performs audits
of reports.
The Missouri Ethics commission was created by the Missouri Ethics Law of 1991.� The law provides for the MEC to have responsibilities for the enforcement of conflict of interest and lobbying laws and campaign finance disclosure laws.� The MEC also issues official opinions that the requestor may rely on as a defense.
