Report No. 2009-121
November 2009
Complete Audit Report
The following findings were included in our audit report on the City of St. Louis, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
Opportunities exist for airport officials to reduce operating costs. The airport is incurring unnecessary costs by continuing to fund the operations of the south firehouse at the airport. The airport has received confirmation from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the south firehouse is not necessary to meet FAA regulations for emergency response times. A cost analysis performed by the airport estimated the potential cost savings of closing the south firehouse would be approximately $1.8 million per year. Also, airport management has not performed a cost analysis to determine if janitorial services should be performed by city employees or outsourced.
Landing and fuel flowage fees charged to users of fixed based operator facilities, also called general aviation traffic, have not been updated for approximately 10 years, and the airport has no documentation of how the fees were determined. Fees charged to the various food vendors, car rental companies, and miscellaneous shops at the airport terminals are not subject to a competitive process and have not been updated for approximately 10 years. The airport has not adequately monitored the cash receipt operations of the parking contractor and has not adequately reviewed audit reports of passenger facility charge (PFC) revenues.
Airport accounting controls and procedures could be improved. Accounting duties within the Finance and Accounting Division are not adequately segregated and there is minimal independent oversight related to receipts. Receipts collected and recorded by the account clerk are not always transmitted intact. The Finance and Accounting Division allows vending machine commission checks and petty cash replenishment checks to be cashed from the daily cash receipts. The method of payment is not recorded on some receipt slips issued by the front office window and the composition of receipts is not reconciled to turnovers to the City Treasurer's Office. In addition, several large airport expenditures were not properly approved as outlined by airport policy.
The airport has approximately 319 vehicles including passenger vehicles, trucks, vans, and dump trucks. Monitoring procedures for the airport's vehicles are not sufficient. The city's vehicle policy does not address records to be maintained for vehicles, and the airport does not require vehicle usage logs be maintained for its vehicles. In addition, no documentation was provided to show the airport regularly monitors the fleet to ensure vehicles are used efficiently and effectively. The airport does not have adequate procedures in place to ensure employees assigned a take home vehicle do not continue to receive a commuting allowance. Also, the airport does not reconcile fuel purchased to fuel used.
Procedures for tracking capital assets and depreciation could be improved. The airport has two conflicting written policies concerning assets. The airport has not recently performed an annual physical inventory of assets. Property purchases and accumulated depreciation are not adequately reconciled between the general ledger trial balance and the capital asset list. The property records maintained do not include all necessary information and some descriptions are not accurate. The airport police department maintains an additional property list which duplicates the records maintained by the Finance and Accounting Division. In addition, the police department list contains small items (minimum value of $20) which may not need to be tracked.
Complete Audit Report
Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@auditor.mo.gov
