BreakingKZRG NewsLatest NewsNews Joplin MONewstalk KZRGTrending

Auditor Galloway releases audit of Miller County Collector

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (August 8, 2022) — State Auditor Nicole Galloway today released an audit of the county collector and property tax system of Miller County, located in central Missouri. The report gave an overall rating of fair.

Missouri law requires an audit be performed when a vacancy occurs in a county collector’s office. William Harvey served as county collector until Nov. 28, 2021, and Jody Vance was appointed to fill the vacancy.

The audit found the former county collector did not prepare and file an annual settlement for the years ended Feb. 28 (29), 2015, through 2021, in violation of state law. Because the annual settlements were not filed, the county commission could not verify the county collector’s accounts for those years.

The county also has not adequately restricted property tax system access, and the county commission and the county clerk do not adequately review changes entered into the property tax system. Aggregate abstract procedures also need improvement. The county clerk indicated he did not have access to the county collector’s tax book information. As a result, he prepared the 2020 land and personal property tax aggregate abstract based on the county’s assessed valuation rather than the tax books. The State Auditor’s Office compared the 2020 aggregate abstracts with the corresponding tax books maintained by the county collector’s office and identified several differences.

In addition, the audit found the former county collector did not prepare bank reconciliations for any of the office’s seven bank accounts during the years ended Feb. 28 (29), 2018, through 2021. The former county collector also did not prepare a monthly list of liabilities for the bank accounts with liabilities. Controls over cash handling need improvement because employees share one cash drawer, and the county collector does not account for the numerical sequence of receipt slip numbers assigned by the property tax system.

The current county collector, county commission, and county clerk indicated significant steps have already been made to address the audit findings.

The complete audit of the Miller County Collector and Property Tax System can be found here.

Show More
Back to top button