11/22/2019
State Auditor Nicole Galloway today released a citizen-requested audit of the City of Bellerive Acres, located in north St. Louis County. The audit, which gave the city a rating of "fair," made several recommendations for city officials to improve the city's accounting controls and procedures.
"Our audit brought to light several concerns about the fiscal management of Bellerive Acres," Auditor Galloway said. "I urge city officials to implement the audit recommendations to make better use of taxpayer dollars."
The audit found the Board of Aldermen's review and approval process for disbursements is not adequate. City officials could not provide supporting documentation for more than half the disbursements made in 2018.
The city also does not have a formal bidding policy or established policies for selecting vendors, nor written contracts with all its service providers. While police protection for Bellerive Acres is provided by a neighboring city, there is no current contract for those services.
The audit also identified that, in December 2017, the city held a holiday party costing approximately $7,000. The audit said this was a questionable or unnecessary use of city resources. Other findings included that city officials do not properly prepare or approve budgets, nor do they publish semiannual financial statement as required by state law.
The complete audit can be found here.