YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

September 26, 2002

Report No. 2002-99

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Atchison, 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 Atchison 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 county has not established cash management procedures to ensure the minimum time elapses between its receipt of federal project monies and the distribution of such monies to contractors.  We noted several reimbursements which were held for various time periods prior to disbursement.  In addition, the county did not reconcile total amounts claimed for reimbursement to the Department of Transportation to the actual invoices submitted for each project.
  
  
• 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 Atchison County's Associate County Commissioners salaries were each increased approximately $5,870 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 approximately $11,740 for the two years ended December 31, 2000, should be repaid.

Also included in the audit are recommendations to the Health Center related to depositing receipts, expenditures, and personnel policies.  In addition, recommendations were made to improve the accounting controls and procedures of the Associate Circuit Court and Sheriff.

Complete Audit Report