Report No. 2010-105
August 2010
Complete Audit Report

Findings in the audit of Gasconade County

County Treasurer's Reconciliations
The County Treasurer does not reconcile receipts to deposits, and as a result, has not been able to identify the cause of differences between bank account balances and fund balances. The County Treasurer maintains three checking accounts, a savings account, and a certificate of deposit. The County Treasurer indicated that shortly after taking office in January 2007, he deposited some monies into the wrong bank accounts, and efforts to correct these errors and reconcile the bank balances and fund balances have been unsuccessful. The County Treasurer's settlement for the 6 months ended December 31, 2009, indicates the total of the county's bank accounts exceeded the total balances of the various county funds by approximately $19,700.

Prosecuting Attorney's Controls and Procedures
Procedures are not adequate to ensure bad check restitution collected by the Circuit Clerk's office is reported to the Prosecuting Attorney's office. As a result, the Prosecuting Attorney and the Circuit Clerk both collected bad check restitution on the same case, resulting in an overpayment of $810. There are no procedures to require supervisory approval of accounting adjustments to the Prosecuting Attorney's computerized accounting system. Some receipts are not recorded immediately upon receipt. There are no procedures to reconcile amounts recorded on manual receipt slips to amounts recorded on the computer system, and some receipts during 2008 and 2009 were not recorded in the accounting system. Bank reconciliations were not prepared from April 2008 to September 2009, and the bank account had an unidentified balance of $114 at December 31, 2009.

Sheriff's Controls and Procedures
Accounting duties are not adequately segregated. Disbursements incurred by the Sheriff's office for advertising do not appear to represent a necessary use of county funds. During 2009 and 2008, the Sheriff's office purchased band booster advertisements totaling approximately $1,000 per year, which were paid from the county's General Revenue Fund and approved by the County Commission. The County Commission discontinued paying for advertising from the General Revenue Fund in 2010, but the Sheriff has continued to purchase advertising from the Sheriff Department Law Enforcement Fund, which is controlled by the Sheriff and not by the County Commission.

Fund Transfers
The county has not documented a basis for transferring amounts from the Union Electric Fund to the General Revenue Fund. Disbursements from the Union Electric Fund are restricted for emergency preparedness and related items, and county officials indicated the transfers are to cover emergency preparedness expenses incurred in the General Revenue Fund. However, county officials or employees have not prepared documentation of the actual or estimated emergency preparedness expenses paid from the General Revenue Fund.

Complete Audit Report
Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@auditor.mo.gov