12/02/2024 - JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
The former Vernon County Clerk misused taxpayer dollars to buy himself a
retirement gift, and to make other questionable purchases of items such as a
heated vest according to a report released today by State Auditor Scott
Fitzpatrick. The regularly-scheduled audit, which gives the county the lowest possible
rating of "poor," also found Vernon County residents were overtaxed by
approximately $123,000 in property tax revenue by not properly rolling back the
property tax levy for all sales tax collected.
"Taxpayers in Vernon County deserve better and should be able to
trust that their government officials aren't using their tax dollars
irresponsibly while also overtaxing them. This audit report provides
substantive recommendations that will allow the county to correct the mistakes
of the past and ensure they don't happen again," said Auditor Fitzpatrick.
He added, "I'm glad to see the current clerk and other county officials
are taking our recommendations seriously and working in good faith to put them
into place."
The audit documents nearly $5,300 in purchases by the former clerk that
were either inappropriate or inessential to the administration and operation of
the office. The list of items includes $311 for retirement gifts the former
clerk purchased for himself and the former presiding commissioner, as well as
$160 for a heated vest. The report also notes $611 used to purchase headphones
as gifts for his employees, $530 for a cell phone signal booster for the home
of the former clerk, and $3,125 in gift card purchases that were given to
county employees as Christmas gifts. The audit report notes that public
funds should be spent only on items necessary and beneficial to the county.
Another finding in the report highlights the former clerk failed to
accurately calculate the property tax reduction in 2020 and 2021. The
miscalculation resulted in Vernon County residents being overtaxed by $71,000
in 2020 and $97,000 in 2021. While the current clerk made the adjustment
correctly in 2022 and 2023 and decreased the accumulated excess property tax
revenue by approximately $45,000, the county still has approximately $123,000
in excess collections. The report recommends the county work to properly
calculate property tax reductions and correct the accumulation of excess
property tax revenue.
The audit also highlights the lacking
controls and procedures in the County Collector-Treasurer's Office that led to
more than $13.5 million in uncorrected errors that were a result of numerous
unrecorded or incorrectly recorded deposits, bad checks, and other errors
identified in the accounting system. The report found the collector-treasurer does not adequately
perform bank reconciliations and that supporting documentation for the book
balance used in the reconciliation for the general account is not maintained
and the adjusted bank balance calculated in the reconciliation does not
represent the available cash balance of the account. In addition, a liabilities
list is not prepared and reconciled to the available cash balance in the
general account.
Other
findings in the report include lacking procedures to ensure all tax money
received is transferred to the treasurer's account prior to distribution,
nearly $200,000 in improper withholdings made by the collector-treasurer, failure
to comply with the Missouri Sunshine Law, lacking controls and procedures in
the County Clerk's Office, a failure to develop a records management and
retention policy that includes electronic communications, and a mid-term salary
increase of $25,434 to the sheriff in September 2022, retroactive to January 1,
2022, in violation of constitutional provisions and state law.
The complete audit of Vernon County can be found here.
