By Ryan Storz
An audit report by Susan Montee, Missouri state auditor, found that Crawford County has some problems.
Montee’s summary says that financial conditions in the county have been declining. Cash balances are projected to decrease for several county funds in the future.
Receipts have increased, but the county’s spending has also increased. Maintenance and repairs of county property, purchases of real estate, new equipment, increases in fuel costs and increases in personnel costs have contributed to the county’s spending.
The report also finds problems with the county’s budgetary practices. Disbursements have exceeded the budgeted amounts in county funds for the past two years. County budget documents showed numerous misclassifications for both budgeted and actual amounts. The overspending and various budgetary misclassifications means that the county’s budget document may not provide reliable information about the finances.
General revenue property tax revenues have not been sufficiently reduced by 50 percent of sales tax revenues as provided in the ballot issue that was passed by county voters under the provisions of state statute.
County voters were overtaxed in 2008. Montee’s report found that excess property tax collections totaled almost $40,000.
The report says that this starts with the county clerk. The clerk does not maintain an account book or other records summarizing property tax transactions and changes. No procedures are performed by the clerk or the county commission to review or verify the county collector’s monthly or annual settlements. State law requires the clerk to maintain accounts with all persons chargeable with monies payable into the county treasury.
Better records would ensure that the amount of taxes charged and credited to the collector every year is complete and accurate.
In response to the report, county clerk Connie Smith said she is in the process of setting up an account book with county collector Linda Branson. The commission said that they will review the account book annually.
There are bidding problems abound. The report says that bids were not always solicited, or documentation was not retained of bids solicited for purchases made by county officials. Justification was not adequately documented for some bidding decisions.
Massive spending projects were purchased without bids and that includes consulting services for the implementation of a global imaging system in the assessor’s office, which cost $80,000; server software and licenses for the system costing $26,606; exercise equipment for the county jail costing $10,000; and three different bridge projects costing $6,000 each.
Over $134,000 was spent without any bids.
Emergency 911 was also named as problematic in the report. It says that the records and procedures related to payroll policies need improvement. Disbursements exceeded budgeted amounts for the year ending Dec. 31, 2008. Written authorization for employee salary, wage rate changes and written documentation of each employee’s position is not maintained.
Formal bank reconciliations are not prepared for the Senior Citizens’ Services Board bank account, according to the report. It said that deposits are not made in a timely manner and checks are not endorsed until the deposit is made.