Report No. 2007-65
October 2007

Complete Audit Report

An audit was conducted by our office of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, city of Huntsville, Missouri Municipal Division.

The city of Huntsville Municipal Division is within the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, which consists of Howard and Randolph counties. The Honorable Scott Hayes serves as Presiding Judge.

The Court Clerk is primarily responsible for receiving, recording, and depositing fines, court costs, and bonds into the municipal division's bank account and disbursing all monies collected each month. As a result, the duties of receiving and depositing monies are not adequately segregated from the recording of transactions. Although the City Treasurer does have the responsibility of reconciling the municipal division's bank account each month, it appears these reconciliations were not thorough. In addition, no one independent of the receiving, recording, or depositing processes reconciles the amount deposited with the cases filed or the receipt slips issued by the Court Clerk.

The method of payment is not consistently indicated on receipt slips. A ledger or listing of bonds received and disbursed is not maintained and a listing of open items is not prepared periodically and reconciled to the book balance. Case file records are not maintained, and a comprehensive control ledger showing the total amounts owed by defendants to the municipal division is not maintained. Additionally, neither the police department nor the municipal division maintains adequate records to account for traffic tickets assigned and issued, and their ultimate dispositions.

Crime Victim’s Compensation fees (CVC) and Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POSTC) fees are not turned over to the state monthly in accordance with state law. POSTC training monies received by the city from the state are maintained in the municipal division's account. The city does not track POSTC monies received and disbursements are not accounted for separately to ensure the fees are used only for the training of law enforcement officers. In addition, bad check restitution monies received have not been distributed.

The Court Clerk does not file a monthly report with the city of all cases heard in court and court personnel indicated required traffic offenses have not been reported to the Missouri Department of Revenue. Also, a schedule of fines and court costs is not posted at the Violations Bureau offices. These three procedures are all required by state law.

Complete Audit Report