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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
March 5, 2003
Report No. 2003-22
The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Department of Public Safety, Office of the Adjutant General.
The Office of the Adjutant General (OAG) currently operates 63 individual armories located in various cities and towns statewide.� The costs to operate and maintain these armories are paid from federal and state funds.�� The OAG's long-range plans currently estimate armory repair, maintenance, and capital improvement costs will total approximately $33 million over the next eight years.� The OAG rated� 17 (or 26 percent) of the armories in the worst category for their condition.� Some armories exist within close proximity and some operate with a low ratio of actual to authorized troop strength.� The audit recommends the OAG determine whether any armories should be closed for economical reasons.
State law established the National Guard Member Scholarships Program.� This program allows any active member of the Missouri National Guard to receive tuition assistance while attending an approved public or private institution.� State funding will pay 100 percent tuition assistance to those eligible guardsmen who enlisted prior to April 1, 2001, and 50 percent tuition assistance to those enlisting after April 1, 2001.� Expenditures for tuition have risen from $573,982 in fiscal year 2000 to over $2 million in fiscal year 2002. We noted the OAG maintains no formal system to track the total amount of assistance paid to each guardsman and has not established an accounts receivable control account nor detailed listings to account for amounts owed due to noncompliance with program requirements.� A total of $258,354 was owed to the state for recoupment of tuition assistance as of November 2002.
The OAG has 189 cellular telephones, with most assigned to specific individuals and some reserved for pool usage.� Cellular phone charges have risen from approximately $79,500 during fiscal year 2000 to over $187,000 during fiscal year 2002.� The audit noted that some of the OAG's cellular phones were not enrolled in the most cost-effective plan.
The OAG does not reimburse the state's General Revenue Fund for monies used for salary costs of civilian employees working in its cafeteria.� Further, these costs are not included in calculating food prices for the cafeteria.� As a result, the state's General Revenue Fund is subsidizing operations of the OAG's cafeteria.� An OAG official indicated total cafeteria salary and benefit costs paid from the General Revenue Fund amounted to $227,804 and $220,950 in fiscal years 2002 and 2001, respectively.
