 |
YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
November 18, 2002
Report No. 2002-110
The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Safety.
The Division of Fire Safety (DFS) has not established procedures to identify unregistered elevators and to report registration violations to the applicable county prosecuting attorney for enforcement of the penalty provision.� The division estimates there are over 20,000 elevators in the state, but only 11,733 are registered with the division.� Approximately 2,200 of the 11,733 registered elevators and similar devices, in addition to the more than 8,200 unregistered elevators previously mentioned, have never been inspected.
The division also has not established procedures to actively search for unregistered boilers and pressure vessels and to report them to the applicable county prosecuting attorney for enforcement of the penalty provision.� The division estimates there are over 60,000 unregistered boilers and pressure vessels in the state.� Boilers and pressure vessels are not inspected on a timely basis and the penalty for operating boilers and pressure vessels without a valid inspection certificate is not enforced.� Our review of division records noted over 9,300 such devices subject to division inspections and insurance company inspections are operating without a valid certificate.� Inspection certificates� expired for approximately 4,800 of these boilers and pressure vessels between 1996 and 2001, and approximately 4,500 additional certificates expired in 2002.� In addition, prior to June 2002, the DFS issued certificates prior to collecting the applicable inspection and certificate fees.� Our review indicated uncollected fees totaling $14,170.
Since 1997, the DFS has been required to investigate any amusement ride accident which results in a serious physical injury or death.� Legislation passed in 2000 requires amusement ride owners to obtain an annual safety inspection and a state operating permit for each ride prior to operating the ride in the state. The division has not established procedures to actively search for amusement rides operating without a state operating permit and to report them to the applicable county prosecuting attorney for enforcement of the penalty provision.� The division estimates there may be over 5,000 rides that operate in the state.� The division issued only 956 and 702 permits during fiscal years 2002 and 2001, respectively.
During the two years ended June 30, 2002, the DFS paid the University of Missouri $725,301 to schedule and provide free fire fighter and hazardous materials training courses to fire, rescue, and emergency service entities throughout the state.� Our review noted that the DFS does not adequately prioritize the use of the funds paid to the university.� The contracts between the DFS and the university indicate which courses will be funded, the course fees, and the amount of money available to fund classes during thecontract period.� Although the requests for classes exceed available funding, the university schedules all requested classes.� As a result, many classes are subsequently canceled when the funding is exhausted.
Additionally, the DFS provided $41,429 to various colleges and academies to reimburse tuition and related costs for students that passed Fire Fighter I and/or Fire Fighter II certification classes.� The contracts require the colleges and academies to reimburse the students prior to requesting payment from the DFS.� These contracts only require the colleges and academies to provide a list of reimbursement check numbers and payees as documentation for reimbursements to students.� The DFS should require reimbursement claim forms to include forms signed by each student documenting the reimbursement amount received from the college or academy.� Also, the DFS does not always enforce contract terms.� One college did not provide documentation of the students' tuition payments.
The DFS employed fifty-four employees as of June 30, 2002, and maintained forty-nine state-owned vehicles.� The four pool vehicles and six vehicles designated for specific units are underutilized.� Also, mileage logs for state vehicles were not always complete and accurate.
The DFS had not developed a written policy regarding cellular telephone usage and cellular telephone bills were not independently reviewed to identify personal use and to evaluate the appropriateness of calling plans.