YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2005-22

March 2005

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Mississippi, 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 Mississippi County included additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials.  The following concerns were noted as part of the audit:

• Inadequate controls and record keeping resulted in a shortage of approximately $40,925 in the Sheriff's Commissary Account.  In addition, it appears monies from commissary and phones sales were not deposited, or the commissary was operating at a significant loss.  Additional monies may also be missing, however, amounts were not determined due to inadequate records.

• Phone sales commissions of $22,857 were due to the county and $13,335 were due to the phone company at December 31, 2004 from the Sheriff's Commissary account.  Prenumbered receipt slips were not issued for the monies received for phone sales, monies were not deposited timely,  there was no documentation of the transfer of phone monies between the various jail employees, or of reconciliations to phone sale reports, and commissions were not paid to the county on a timely basis. 

• The Detention Center does not have a system for tracking the profit or loss from the sale of commissary items or for recording sales.  During the three years ended December 31, 2004, $67,509 of commissary proceeds was used to replenish the inventory and $12,696 was used for miscellaneous jail costs (internet services, film, medical supplies, a television, cigarettes, travel expenses, etc.).  The Detention Center does not maintain a running inventory (perpetual inventory) of items purchased from vendors, sold to inmates, and inventory balances.

• Bond records maintained by the Detention Center were not adequate to allow the disposition of the bond to be readily determined.  The bond receipt slips did not clearly indicate the entity for which the bond was collected or the disposition of  the bond.  Bond forms were not used by the Detention Center for some bonds.  There was no oversight or adequate segregation of duties over bonds.

• The Inmate bank account was not reconciled with the individual inmate balances, the transmittal of monies between the mail clerk and the account custodian was not clearly documented, there was no documentation to support three checks payable to the Jail Administrator totaling $1,347 and the monies were disbursed to inmates in cash rather than by check.

• The Detention Center spent excessive amounts of overtime costs on prisoner transportation services that were not recouped through their contracts for board of prisoners, accurate timesheets were not reported to the county, payroll duties were not adequately segregated, and overtime compensation was not paid according to policy. 

• The Circuit Clerk's office cannot properly account for approximately $1,586 in bonds, duties are not adequately segregated, and the Circuit Clerk does not have adequate procedures to monitor and ensure monies in her bank accounts are sufficiently collateralized.

• Accounting and bookkeeping duties were not adequately segregated, an adequate system to account for all bad checks received by the Prosecuting Attorney's office as well as the subsequent disposition of those bad checks had not been established, bad check complaints and payments were not processed in a timely manner, and receipts were not deposited on a timely basis.

• The Health Center has not established adequate procedures to ensure bank accounts are sufficiently collateralized.  In addition, accounting duties are not adequately segregated, deposits are not made timely, and employee leave balances are not adequately monitored.

• The SB40 Board has accumulated a significant cash reserve which is not properly reflected on their annual budget.  The SB40 Board does not reflect their certificates of deposit on their budget, which understated their cash balance by $1,074,989 and $923,818 for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively.  In addition, the budget does not indicate the Board's plans for this balance.  The SB40 Board does not maintain minutes of their board meetings, and adequate records were not kept on investments held by the board.

The audit also included recommendations related to sales tax, schedule of federal awards, capital assets, statutory salaries, and ticket accountability.  Additional recommendations were made to improve the Detention Center, Recorder of Deeds, and Collector.

Complete Audit Report