Report No. 2010-37
March 2010
Complete Audit Report
The following findings were included in our audit report on the City of Pleasant Valley.
Monies totaling $12,500, seized by the Pleasant Valley Police Department in 2003 and related to a criminal court case, are missing. Lax controls over the handling of seized property and lack of documentation regarding the chain of custody of these monies appear to be the cause. These monies were properly tracked from 2003 until April 2007, when they were released directly to the former Police Chief. The property control form indicates the monies were moved to the city safe, but the form was not signed by city personnel to indicate the receipt of the monies. The monies were identified as missing in April 2008. In addition, physical inventories of seized property have not been performed in recent years.
There is no segregation of duties and no supervisory review of the work performed by the City Clerk's office. Detailed financial reports are not prepared monthly for review by the Board of Aldermen. The City Treasurer and City Collector are not performing all duties of their respective offices as established by ordinance and/or state law. An investment ledger to monitor Certificate of Deposit balances was not maintained. In addition, the city does not issue receipt slips or maintain a source document to support the receipt of all monies, receipts are not deposited intact on a timely basis, and the method of payment is not consistently noted when receipts are posted to the accounting system. Furthermore, the city does not have adequate procedures to ensure all transactions posted to the accounting system are accounted for properly.
The city does not prepare annual budgets in accordance with statutory provisions, and budget to actual disbursement comparisons were not performed. In addition, the city did not submit its year ended June 30, 2008, annual financial reports to the State Auditor's office in a timely manner.
Pre-approvals of disbursements are not documented adequately and not all disbursements are included on a monthly report to the full board. The city did not use a request for proposal process when selecting attorneys to provide legal services. In addition, a Form 1099-MISC was not prepared for the legal services rendered.
Usage logs are not maintained for city vehicles and fuel logs are not maintained by the police department.
Improvement is needed in the handling of closed meetings. Numerous closed sessions were held by the Board, but the various requirements in the Sunshine Law regarding closed meetings were not always followed.
Complete Audit Report
Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@auditor.mo.gov
