YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2006-23

April 2006

The following findings were included in our audit report on the Twenty-First Judicial Circuit, City of Country Club Hills, Missouri – Municipal Division.

As of January 31, 2006, the bond escrow bank account of the court had a balance of $43,482.  At the auditors' request, the Court Clerk prepared an open items list as of January 31 from the court's bond log.  When compared to the bond bank account balance, it was noted that the bank balance was $20,352 more than the open items list.  A portion of this excess is interest earned on the account that has not been paid over to the city; otherwise, the Court Clerk could not explain the reason for these excess monies.  In addition, the bond log does not indicate the disposition of bonds, including date disposed, refunded, or transmitted to the city.

Court fines and costs are not transmitted to the city and deposited on a timely basis, and the court does not keep records of which receipt numbers make up the bank deposit.  For the time periods reviewed, court transmittals totaled $8,618, $9,277, and $2,808.  Also, during our test of bond receipts, we noted at least $2,850 in bonds held by the police department, waiting to be picked up by a court employee.  Furthermore, the municipal division did not document a review of the numerical sequence of bond forms upon receipt from the police department and neither the court nor the police department account for the numerical sequence of tickets issued.

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