Audit finds segregation of duties the dominant problem in county departments
Ozark County government was given a “fair” rating the audit released in November by Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.
Though the Ozark County Commissioners and County Clerk have said they are happy with the “fair” rating, they also recognize there are certain areas that the county can improve.
“They [auditors] have to find something wrong,” said Ozark County Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins. “They have a job to do.”
According to the news release, auditors found some recurring issues and several new concerns since the audit conducted in 2019. That audit also gave Ozark County a rating of “fair.”
Separation of duties and accounting procedures
As reported last week, the audit found inadequate segregation of duties in some county offices, including the Sheriff’s office and the Ozark County Recycling Center. Auditors found that both departments needed improvement in regards to accounting duties, accepting and documenting receipts in a timely manner and adequate reviews of such procedures.
In the Sheriff’s Office, the auditor’s recommended the segregation of accounting duties or supervisory reviews to be performed and documented. This was also a suggestion in the 2019 audit.
“Due to staffing limitations, we will not be able to fully segregate accounting duties as recommended,” was the response from Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin. “However, to mitigate this limitation, we will implement new workflows that include supervisory reviews conducted by me...These reviews will be documented to ensure transparency and accountability.”
A similar problem was found at the Ozark County Recycling Center.
According to the audit, the county commissioners have “not adequately secregated accounting duties or performed adequate supervisory reviews of detailed accounting records.” The audit also found that both recycling center employees are able to collect and transmit receipts to the County Treasurer. According to the Recycling Center manager, both employees need to be able to perform these duties in case one of the employees is absent.
The audit also found that “Recycling Center personnel do not issue receipt slips for money received or ensure all receipts are recorded on the receipts log. Customers at the Recycling Center are expected to record their payments on the receipts based on the amount paid.” The audit also found that there was no reconciliation performed between the amounts recorded to the receipts log and the receipts transmitted and that receipts were not always taken to the county treasurer in a timely manner.
The county commissioners responded that they have now hired a third person to help with the segregation of duties and ensure that someone will be at the recycling center five days a week to collect receipts. “We will start using pre-numbered receipt slips to record receipts and will use a computer spreadsheet to account for receipt slips and money transmitted,” they responded. “We will also ensure all receipts are transmitted monthly.”
Sheriff’s Department
Martin said the department will also be implementing a system to issue receipts immediately in order to address another concern from the auditor’s report.
According to the report, the office manager does not always issue receipts for fees, permits and miscellaneous items at the time payment is received, and the funds are not always deposited in a timely manner. Another concern is the department’s lack of use of pre-numbered bond forms.
The audit report recognized that increasing workloads and shifting of office responsibilities have caused delays in several of these areas.
However, pre-numbered bond forms are not realistic, said the sheriff. “Given that our bond forms are digital and sourced directly from the court, pre-numbered bond forms are not feasible. However, we will issue digital receipt slips for all bond receipts to ensure propery tracking and accountability.”
Adequate control and procedures over seized property continues to be a problem for the department. The same problem was listed in the 2019 report. In the 2023 report, it was noted that a complete and accurate log has not been maintained and a physical inventory has not been performed since before Martin took office in January 2021.
According to the report, the Sheriff’s office currently has two separate systems tracking seized property – the older system that was used prior to 2021 and the new system for evidence beginning in 2021.The Sheriff indicated that the staffing shortage has been contributing to the problem of tracking the property.
“We will take several steps to improve our internal controls,” Martin responded to the report. “First, we will update our seized property evidence log and conduct periodic inventories to ensure all items are accounted for.
“To streamline the process and improve accuracy, we will be converting all existing seized property evidence from the old to the new system. Additionally, we will implement barcode scanning for all seized property to facilitate easier tracking and management.”
County Clerk’s office
Not maintaining an account book and preparing the land and personal tax abstracts were listed as items to change in the clerk’s office.
Ozark County Clerk Brian Wise indicated to the auditors that he was unaware of the need for an account book. “We have started generating reports from the computer system to compare to the County Collector’s records,” said Wise.
Wise also indicated that the failure to prepare the tax abstracts was an oversight and has been corrected.
Recorder of Deeds
The audit found that the Ex Officio Recorder of Deeds’ needs to prepare adquate monthly bank reconciliations and list of liabilities. The new Recorder, Jackie Smith, said the recommendation has been implemented.
Sunshine Law and electronic security
The final areas of the report address the Sunshine Law and electronic security in count offices.
According to the audit report, there is no written policy regarding public access to county records as required by state law. The auditor’s suggestion is for the County Commission to develolop a written public access policy and maintain a public request log.
According to Wise, the county is in the process of preparing a website with the information required by the law including identification of a person to contact, an address to mail requests and fees that may be assessed for providing copies of the public record.
County commissioners also said they will develop a written Sunshine Law policy for each county official to maintain a log of requests to help ensure compliance with the state law.
The report also stated that controls over county computers are not sufficient and “are not adequately protected and are susceptible to unauthorized access or loss of data.”
Several offices in the county were noted to have inadequate password controls, employees are not required to change their passwords periodically and some employees’ passwords are not kept confidential.
Second, some office computers do not have security controls in place to lock computers after a specified number of incorrect login attempts and after a period of inactivity.
The commissioners stated that as part of the technology improvements being conducted in the courthouse and county offices, county officials will be encouraged to improve password and security control.
“Additional security controls are in place to lock screens after 15 minutes of inactivity,” said Martin about the improvements at the Sheriff’s Office. “Accounts are also configured to now lock after five consecutive failed login attempts.”
Martin also said the Sheriff’s Department is in the process of enhancing the security with the implementation of Personal Identity Verification cards and Multi-Factor Authentication.
Improvements since 2019
Even though the report found several areas where county offices can improve, it appears there were several areas that had been fixed since the 2019 audit especially in the clerk’s office and assessor’s office.
“They don’t look back at the previous audit in the current audit report and tell everybody what we changed from the previous audit, what we fixed and all that stuff,” said Wise.
The commissioners still seem to be pleased with the report and said they will continue to work on the problems found in the audit report.