Report No. 2008-44
July 2008
Complete Audit Report
An audit was conducted by our office of the Thirty-Eighth Judicial Circuit, city of Clever Municipal Division.
Fines, court costs, and bonds totaling at least $4,628 were received by the Clever Municipal Division during the period July 1, 2006 through March 13, 2008, but were not deposited, and were misappropriated. Upon discovering the discrepancies noted above in the deposit records of the municipal division, auditors performed a very limited review of other city receipts, and identified an additional cash shortage of $571 in two of only three water and sewer deposits reviewed. In addition, auditors noted numerous small dollar city receipt slips ranging from $4 to $19 for items such as dog tags and trash bags that could not be traced to a deposit. It appears likely additional city cash receipts may have been misappropriated, and the city needs to take steps to obtain an audit of these funds.
The former City Clerk, who also acted as Court Clerk, was hired by the city in December 2004, and was terminated on December 17, 2007. She was subsequently charged with felony stealing and forgery for writing unauthorized checks totaling approximately $42,000 from the city's bank accounts between September 2006 and December 2007. After our initial visit to the city of Clever on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, the Assistant City Clerk, who had assumed most of the court related duties, abruptly terminated employment on Monday, February 25, 2008. Poor controls over municipal division monies, as well as no independent review of the work performed by city employees allowed these misappropriations to go undetected.
There is inadequate segregation of duties related to the collection and disbursement of court money, and neither the Municipal Judge nor other personnel independent of the cash custody and record-keeping functions provide adequate supervision or review of the work performed. Additionally, numerous poor procedures and controls over the collection of court receipts contributed to the misappropriation.
The final disposition of each case is not consistently documented on the court dockets, Crime Victims Compensation and Police Officers Standard Training and Commission Fund collections were not remitted to the state timely, and the court does not file a monthly report of all cases heard with the city. In addition, monthly listings of open items (liabilities) were not prepared and reconciled to the available cash balance for the bond account, and city employees are allowed to amend traffic violations and collect double the fine amount without documented approval from the Prosecuting Attorney or Municipal Judge. In addition, neither the police department nor the municipal division accounts for the numerical sequence and ultimate disposition of traffic tickets issued.
Complete Audit Report
Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@auditor.mo.gov
