Auditor Fitzpatrick begins regularly-scheduled audit of Crawford County

A regularly-scheduled performance audit of Crawford County, located in central Missouri, is now underway according to Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick. The audit officially began with an entrance meeting with county officials on Tuesday, March 25.

The State Auditor's Office last released a performance audit of Crawford County in 2017. The report gave the county a rating of "fair" and found it had continued to overcharge citizens on property taxes, a concern that had been raised in multiple prior audit reports. Between 2013 and 2016, the county collected $44,537 in excess property taxes.

A subsequent audit issued in 2019 of the Crawford County Collector and Property Tax System recommended increased oversight of the county's property tax system and questioned spending by the former collector from the Tax Maintenance Fund. Between 2014 and 2017, the former County Collector hired and paid her sister from the fund to prepare and mail annual tax statements, which led to nepotism allegations. The former collector then used Tax Maintenance Funds to pay for $1,000 in personal legal fees she accrued during a Missouri Ethics Commission inquiry. The Collector resigned due to the nepotism concerns in March 2018.

Individuals may provide information confidentially for consideration during the audit of Crawford County to the State Auditor's Whistleblower Hotline at 800-347-8597, by email at moaudit@auditor.mo.gov or by visiting www.auditor.mo.gov/hotline.