YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
March 11, 2003
Report No. 2003-23
After repeatedly not correcting problems noted in prior audits, the St. Louis City Circuit Clerk's Office has implemented or partly implemented 90 percent of the previous recommendations.
This audit follows up on the 51 recommendations from our April 2000 report and focuses on the Circuit Clerk's Office records for the year ended June 30, 2002. Of the previous 51 recommendations, the office has implemented 32 (63 percent), partially implemented 14 (27 percent), and not implemented 5 (10 percent).
This report covers the recommendations not implemented and notes the progress on the partially implemented actions. In all cases, the Circuit Clerk agreed with the recommendations. The following highlights the continued concerns.
Open Items
The Circuit Clerk's Office has two main cash handling divisions - civil and criminal, each with two separate bank accounts. Account I represents monies received for cases filed before January 1, 1999, and account II represents monies received for cases filed after January 1, 1999.
At June 30, 2002, the open items list indicated the court was holding over $9.7 million in deposits for the civil account I. However, the accuracy of the case balances on the open items lists for the civil accounts is in doubt due to various problems regarding the computer system. This has delayed the disbursement of these monies.
Our prior audit revealed numerous differences between the computer system and the manual case files. The Circuit Clerk's Office personnel have investigated these differences, identified the causes, and corrected the problem or adjusted their procedures to ensure similar differences do not occur in cases filed after January 1, 1999. However, the personnel have concluded that they need to manually agree the case file information to the computer system for all cases filed prior to January 1,1999, before they can disburse these funds. Because the office has limited financial resources and personnel to devote to resolving the differences and disbursing the monies being held, it is estimated that it will take many years for the office to disburse the monies held in civil account I. The audit also noted the office is holding partial payments of court costs collected on criminal cases prior to January 1999.
Old, inactive case balances increase the volume of cases which must be monitored and controlled, putting a greater burden on personnel resources. Failure to prorate available monies when it is unlikely the balance will be collected, deprives the state and city of the use of those monies.
The State Auditor has again recommended the Circuit Clerk disburse monies on old cases in a more timely manner. If additional amounts are owed on old cases and it appears unlikely these amounts will be collected, a court order should be obtained to write off the balances due on the cases.
The open items listing for the civil accounts (accounts I and II) does not reconcile to the account balance. The open items listing totaled approximately $10,482,000 as of June 30, 2002. The reconciled account balances at June 30, 2000, were approximately $9,812,000 indicating a shortage of approximately $669,000.
The monthly open items listing has not been reconciled to the garnishment account balance since September 2001. The open items listings at June 30, 2002, exceeds the garnishment account balance by $38,448.
A complete criminal open items listing was not maintained prior to January 1, 1999. At June 30, 2002, the criminal account balances totaled approximately $2,661,000 which exceeded the open items listing by approximately $1,246,000. This difference will be decreased once court personnel are able to identify the open items from prior to January 1999.
There continues to be a need for the Circuit Clerk's Office to maintain and periodically reconcile open-items listings to the balances in the various accounts. Any unidentified or unclaimed monies should be disposed of in accordance with state law.
Outstanding Checks
At June 30, 2002, the Circuit Clerk's Office had approximately $461,000 in outstanding checks that had been held for a considerable amount of time without adequate follow up to dispose of the checks. These old outstanding checks create additional and unnecessary record-keeping responsibilities. Outstanding checks should be periodically reviewed to determine if the payees can be readily located and if there is a need to reissue the checks.
Accrued Costs Receivable
Individual accrued court costs receivable balances are maintained on the civil computer system for each case; however, a receivables list is not maintained to summarize total amounts due from plaintiffs, defendants, and the city. An accrued cost listing would allow the Circuit Clerk to more easily review the amounts owed to the court and take appropriate steps to follow up on initial billings to ensure all amounts owed are collected on a timely basis.