The Missouri State Auditor’s Office is taking a dim view of the budget practices in The Village of Country Club. In an audit report released Wednesday evening, officials gave the village a rating of “poor.”
The report takes issue with the way some revenues were spent, with the lack of independent oversight of the accounting work of the Village Clerk, with some actions taken behind closed doors by the Board of Trustees, and problems with recent budgets.
The report chastises village officials for not spending state motor vehicle fees and sales tax revenue on street-related expenses.
There appears to be a problem with the way the village’s half-cent sales tax was implemented. The Auditor’s Office asserts that the village did not retain the original ballot language from Apriol 1999, when the sales tax was approved, “…so it is unclear what the voters actually approved.”
“Minutes from one board meeting indicate the sales tax was to be restricted for road improvements, but minutes from another meeting make no mention of such a restriction,” the report states, “and the ordinance signed by the Board does not contain a restriction.”
“The proposed ballot language published in the newspaper in January of 1999 does not mention a restriction, but the language published in March and April of 1999 says the tax is to be limited to street repairs.”
Only $213,000 of the nearly $750,000 (in motor vehicle fees from the state and sales tax revenue) was clearly spent on street-related expenses according to the report. The balance (over $530,000) appears to have been allocated in an unallowable and/or unreasonable manner.
For example, auditors say 65 percent of salaries, fringe benefits, insurance, training, and other costs related to the police department are allocated to these restricted revenues, and other expenses were allocated with no justification for the percentages used or how they were street-related.
There were other financial problems noted by the report. “The Board has not segregated accounting duties, and there was not adequate independent oversight of the work of the Village Clerk. The Village Clerk kept inaccurate records, did not perform bank reconciliations, and did not maintain a running balance of accounts. There is no independent review of the credit card statements or supporting documentation to ensure purchases are reasonable, and the village needs to improve its receipting and depositing procedures,” the report said.
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