YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

June 16, 1999
Report No. 99-39

The following problems were discovered in the Circuit Clerk's office in the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, St. Louis City, Missouri. The Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Criminal Division - Finance Department, is responsible for the accounting and reporting of funds deposited with the court in relation to criminal cases, including cash bond payments.

Our audit uncovered theft; information gathered during our review was turned over to the St. Louis City Circuit Attorney's Office and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The cashier/bookkeeper responsible for collecting some cash bond payments and recording all cash bond activity has been indicted by the circuit's grand jury for stealing.

All thefts reported in our audit occurred prior to January 1, 1999.

During our audit, we noted discrepancies between receipt records for cash bonds, monies deposited into the Finance Department's bank account, and other supporting bond records. Cash bond monies of at least $9,300 were taken and receipt records were altered to conceal the shortages.

Our review of the Finance Department's bond records noted the amounts paid for some of the cash bonds shown on the copy of the original receipt slip did not agree to the amounts on the receipt ledger. The amount recorded on the one-write receipt ledger had been altered after the original receipt slip was issued to reflect a lesser amount. These alterations were done to conceal the cash collected from bonds which was not deposited, but rather taken by an employee. Fifteen cash payments for bonds posted between December 20, 1997 and November 21, 1998, were altered and therefore portions of the cash bond payments received, totaling $9,300, were not properly recorded and deposited.

The missing money went undetected throughout the period noted due to weaknesses in several internal controls and reconciliation procedures, and a lack of segregation of duties.

The duties of receiving and recording cash bond monies collected by the Finance Department were not adequately segregated. The former bookkeeper performed both of these duties, as well as processing and recording bond disbursements. No one independent of the process reconciled bond receipts recorded in the one-write receipt ledger with amounts recorded in other bond records.

A list of the bonds received, but not paid out, has not been adequately maintained. This list should not only be accurately maintained, but reconciled to the balance in the bond account. The failure to reconcile the listing of bonds not yet paid out, to the money available to pay them in the bank, has contributed to the failure to detect the missing money.

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