Auditor gives Greene County books a “good” rating in audit

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) -

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway issued a “Good” rating for the accounting practices inside Greene County.

“I think it’s important to take a step back and remember where we came from here. In December of 2017 my office reached out to the county commission because a whistleblower had came forward with allegations of improper use of public resources,” she said.

On January 2, 2019, the Greene County Commission voted to invite the Missouri State Auditor to conduct an audit of the county. The audit included the financial statements of Greene County for 2018.

“This audit demonstrates Greene County’s highest commitment to transparent government and the strength of the organization,” said Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon. “From the onset, we welcomed the independent evaluation of our processes and procedures, and we are pleased with the results and feedback to continually advance our operations. The Commission is especially grateful for everyone’s work and dedication to this task, especially that of our elected officials and staff. Their personal commitment to working the long and arduous hours is a yet another demonstration of their ongoing service to citizens.”

The audit referenced several things as recommendations for improvement, including a gift card incentives for employees. Here are the actions taken by the county.

· The suspension of the annual employee appreciation day event

· The county eliminated purchasing gift cards as employee recognition

· More frequent deposits to limit the amount of petty cash on hand at the Greene County Treasurer’s Office

· An updated system for the issuing of numeric liquor licenses at the Greene County Clerk’s Office

· The Prosecuting Attorney’s Office enhanced supervisory review of delinquent tax receipts, provided additional procedural training and supervision of staff responsible for disbursements, and obtained enhanced control features within the state-wide case management system from the vendor.

“Missouri law gives multiple directives,” said Presiding Commissioner Dixon on the employee recognition recommendation. “One is that we use generally accepted accounting principles. Those are what we follow. If you’re going to pay an incentive it has to be reported on the W-2 and it gives guidelines. We were following those guidelines. However, there are other and I will say obscure provisions, which really lend to not doing any incentives at all. I respect the auditor’s very conservative interpretation of those provisions and we will follow them.”

Galloway had encouraging words for how Greene County manages its books.

“Overall what this audit says and what this process says is that the current leadership in Greene County welcomes oversight,” said Galloway. “They want to be transparent. When there are recommendations made by my office they are willing to listen and implement those recommendations. I do give credit to the current leadership in Greene County for how they have worked this process. We still have audits of the commission and sheriff to come. My hope is that we will see some of these same results, that they will be open to recommendations and being held accountable for how they run their offices.”

Galloway says those audits should come near the end of 2020.

Greene County fully cooperated with all of the audits.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Missouri State Auditor’s office and we view this audit as an additional resource for the county in fulfilling our mission to be prudent stewards of taxpayer funds,” added Greene County Auditor Cindy Stein, who worked closely with the state.

Dixon credited KY3 for our efforts in this process.

“Thank you to you and your station for doing the work that you’ve done to facilitate this as well,” he said.

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