12/09/2021
State Auditor Nicole Galloway today
released the report of her regularly scheduled audit of Lawrence County,
located in southwest Missouri. The report, which gives a rating of
"fair," is the first audit of the county since a 2016 audit gave the county a rating of "poor" - the lowest
possible - and the subsequent 2017 follow-up report
Auditors made several recommendations
to improve accounting controls in the office of the County Collector. The
Collector's office collected approximately $30.3 million in property taxes and
other receipts during the year ended February 28, 2021. Auditors found that
office personnel do not always issue receipt slips, do not always record the
method of payment accurately in the property tax system, and do not reconcile
the composition of receipts to the compositions of deposits. In addition, the
County Collector did not prepare adequate bank reconciliations, did not prepare
monthly lists of liabilities to reconcile to available cash balances, and lacks
procedures to properly handle outstanding checks.
The audit report also recommended
improved controls and procedures over the property tax system, and recommended
improvements in the offices of the Public Administrator and the Sheriff.
Auditors also found that
cybersecurity controls over county computers are not sufficient. As a result,
county records are not adequately protected and are susceptible to unauthorized
access or loss of data. The audit recommended that the county require
confidential passwords for each employee that contain a minimum number of
characters and are periodically changed to prevent unauthorized access to
county computers and data.
A complete copy of the report is
available here.
