YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

October 27, 1999
Report No. 99-102

The following problems, discovered as result of our office's most recent two year audit of the Twenty-First Judicial Circuit's Municipal Division in the Village of Hanley Hills.

The Court Clerk, Village Clerk, and Deputy Village Clerk each have the authority to receive fine and court cost payments, issue receipt slips, record payments on the village's computerized accounting system and enter receipts into the cash register.

The duties of receiving, recording, and depositing monies collected by the municipal division are not adequately segregated. In addition, there is no reconciliation of receipt slips to the computer reports or cash register entries and the composition of receipts per those records is not reconciled to deposits. There were several instances noted in which payments indicated on the cash register tape did not agree with deposit slips prepared by the Village Clerk.

To safeguard against possible loss or misuse of funds, internal controls should provide reasonable assurance that all transactions are accounted for properly and assets are adequately safeguarded.

The municipal division does not account for the numerical sequence and ultimate disposition of traffic tickets and summonses issued. Without a proper accounting for the numerical sequence and ultimate disposition of tickets, the municipal division cannot be assured all tickets issued are properly processed.

The municipal division did not always forward required records of convictions on traffic offenses to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

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