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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
Report No. 2000-80
August 28, 2000
The following findings were noted as a result
of an audit conducted by our office of the General Assembly and Supporting
Functions � Committee on Legislative Research and Interim Committees.
In response to concerns reported in the prior
audit, in March 1994, the Committee on Legislative Research established a
uniform personnel policy which, among other things, addressed the leave
accruals of employees of both the Research and Oversight Divisions.� However, that policy provides sick leave
benefits which are more generous than those provided to other state
employees� Currently, employees of both
the Research and Oversight Divisions earn sick leave at a rate of 14 hours per
month, rather than the 10 hours earned by most state employees.�� As a result of this situation, the
committee is certifying accrued sick leave balances to the state retirement
system to be counted as creditable service which� are in excess of those allowed by law.
State law requires that for the purpose of
calculating creditable service, the rate of accrual of sick leave for
legislative employees must be the same as that promulgated by the personnel
advisory board.� Therefore, the 10 hour
per month sick leave accrual which applies to other state employees must be
used when certifying service of committee employees to the retirement system.
The uniform personnel policy adopted in March
1994, established a standard 35 hour work week (7 hours per day) for its
employees.� In contrast, employees of
most other state agencies are required to work 40 hours per week.
Although an Attorney General�s opinion
concluded legislative employees are exempt from state requirements regarding
hours of work and other personnel matters, it appears unreasonable for
employees of this agency to be required to work fewer hours per week than is
required of most other state as well as private employees.
During fiscal year 1997, the Committee on
Legislative Research approved the purchase of computer equipment for the House
of Representatives and the Senate from Statutory Revision Fund
appropriations.� The related expenditures
totaled over $54,000.� The Director of
the Research Division indicated that over $36,000 of these expenditures were
intended to offset personal service expenses incurred by the House of
Representatives and the Senate for use of their EDP staff in assisting the
committee in its computer operations; however, there was no documentation
maintained to support the personal service expenses incurred by the legislature
on behalf of the committee.� In
addition, there was no similar explanation for the remaining expenditures
(approximately $18,000) and the benefits to the committee or its operating
divisions from these expenditures.
The Committee of Legislative Research has
distributed significantly more free copies of the revised statutes and annual
supplements to the various state agencies, officials and other government
offices than the minimum required by law.�
In addition, the committee has not maintained documentation to support
its pricing decisions regarding the statutes and supplements.
To keep costs to a minimum, the committee
should review the number of free copies of the statutes and supplements it
distributes and consider requesting the various agencies/officials reevaluate
their use of the statues and the number of copies requested.� This is particularly true now that statutory
information is available on the internet.
Fixed asset records of both the Research and Oversight Divisions are not maintained in a manner that allows balances to be reconciled from period to period.� Fixed asset additions are not reconciled to equipment purchases, and the records do not consistently include all information required by state regulations.
