YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

Report No. 2006-67

November 2006

IMPORTANT:  The Missouri State Auditor is required by state law to conduct audits once every 4 years in counties, like Gasconade, that do not have a county auditor.  In addition to a financial audit of various county operating funds, the State Auditor's statutory audit covers additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials, as required by Missouri's Constitution.

Significant problems were noted in the controls over collections of the Sheriff's office, and as a result, the Sheriff's office did not detect $974 of receipts which were not deposited and appear to be missing.  These missing funds occurred during the terms of both the current Sheriff, who took office on January 1, 2005, and the former Sheriff.  The Sheriff should follow up on this matter and reimburse his official account for any amounts remaining missing.  These missing funds were not detected by the Sheriff's office due to several record keeping deficiencies and internal control weaknesses, including a lack of reconciliations between receipts and deposits and a lack of segregation of duties or supervisory reviews.  Other problems include receipt slips not issued for some collections, receipts not deposited intact in a timely manner, and no reconciliations between liabilities and cash balances.  In addition, Sheriff's sales fees were not properly distributed from the Sheriff's fee account to the county.

Improvements are needed in the controls and procedures over the 911 Board's expenditures and payroll.  Board approval of invoices for payment is not adequately documented, supporting documentation such as vendor invoices was not retained for some disbursements, employee timesheets do not always include documentation of supervisory approval, and the board has not adopted written policies for overtime and compensatory time.  Records of capital assets are not maintained, actual disbursements exceeded budgeted amounts, and annual financial statements are not published.  Reasons and votes taken to close board meetings are not documented in the regular board minutes.

The county has not prepared an annual maintenance plan for county roads and bridges, and does not report commuting mileage to the IRS for Road and Bridge supervisors.  In addition, procedures to account for county property should be improved, and county property records are not complete.

The audit also included findings regarding controls and procedures of the Prosecuting Attorney, Associate Circuit and Probate Court, and Ex Officio Recorder of Deeds.

Complete Audit Report