I am pleased to respond to the Henry County Audit report as was published recently in the Clinton Daily Democrat. Audits are designed to determine if funds are missing from any accounts and make recommendations to improve any procedures that might further safeguard monies. We have completed four audits since my term as your Sheriff began and I am pleased that those audits have never had any findings of critical errors.
I have addressed four points that were covered in the “yellow sheet” prepared by the Missouri State Auditors Office. I have spent some time explaining how our systems work, so that you might better understand our operations and the procedures we have in place to assure that the best possible outcomes are achieved.
1. The Edward Byrne Memorial Formula grant was awarded to the West Central Drug Task Force since the late 1980’s and has been managed by the Clinton Police Department for several years, Cass County Sheriff’s Office for one year and Henry County Sheriff’s Office since July 1, 2001. Throughout its history, personnel assigned to the West Central Drug Task Force have been supervised, relative to their work time and vehicle use, by a sergeant of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The grant is awarded through a competitive bid process from the Missouri Department of Public Safety (DPS). DPS conducts on-site compliance visits with grant managers each year. During these compliance checks, records are reviewed for compliance with grant procedures. During the time the grants have been managed by Henry County Sheriff’s Office the issues of time records and vehicle fuel logs were never cited as deficiencies by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. Had any deficiencies been noted during these annual reviews, as was noted by the State Auditor, we certainly would have implemented them.
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2. The Inmate Fund of the Henry County Sheriff’s Office is utilized to deposit funds from persons incarcerated in the Henry County Detention Center. The commissary program was started to minimize the opportunity to smuggle contraband (primarily drugs) into the facility through the intake of outside personal and food items. From these funds, inmates can purchase supplies and food products that are not essential to their incarceration but are items of convenience. These items are sold at a profit relative to convenience store pricing and are available on a weekly basis. The commissary program is operated by employees of the Sheriff’s Office and is not outsourced. The Missouri State Statutes do not address the issue of inmate or commissary funds.
The profits from these sales are utilized to fund various activities of the Sheriff’s Office including advertising; training and meals; assist indigent inmates; and other community programs that promote awareness of the Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center. For example, a person may be incarcerated and their clothing is taken as evidence. When they are discharged, clothing items are purchased for them to wear from the facility. Sometimes a person comes into the facility during the summer months (shorts and t-shirt) and is discharged during the winter months. When these inmates do not have adequate funds, winter clothing items are purchased for them from the profits of the Inmate Fund. In addition, an indigent inmate that lives outside of Clinton may be provided with a small amount of cash ($20 or less) for gas money and meals so that they can return home.
Also, the profits from the inmate fund are utilized to make “on-line” purchases of equipment and supplies for the Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center, when such items are not available locally and/or are the “best price” available. This is done because the county does not provide a credit card which is required to make these “on-line” purchases. When these transactions are reimbursable as budgeted items, requisitions are submitted to and approved by the County Commissioners to reimburse the inmate fund.
In the audit report it is noted that supporting documentation was not retained for $1,698 in cash ATM withdrawals for the two years of 2005 and 2006. The following is a summary of the items purchased or provided with these transactions.
2006
2005
3. The Sheriff’s Office Fee Account is maintained to deposit monies from the day to day operations of the Sheriff’s Office including fees from permits, prisoner board, grants, carry conceal applications and classes, civil process, inmate phone commissions, cash bonds and state reimbursements. At the end of each month, the balance of the Fee Account, less open items, is paid to the county treasurer based on a computer generated payout report. In April of 2006 the payout report over reported the amount of civil process fees to be paid to the County Treasurer, resulting in an error. This over-payment was discovered during the audit period and was corrected with the April, 2008 monthly disbursement to the County Treasurer.
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4. The audit report cites deposits to the fee account not being made intact or in a timely manner. Our long-standing procedure at the Sheriff’s Office has been to have more than one person involved in preparing the deposit report, taking money to the bank for deposit and reconciliation of the bank statement. While these procedures protect the account from un-detected theft, it does sometimes prohibit the funds from being deposited timely. For example, when a deposit is prepared, the person designated to take the deposit to the bank may not be available until the next day. When this occurs, the deposit is maintained in a locked cash box at the Sheriff’s Office and key access is limited to two people. Deposits are not always made intact because various reviews of the separate deposits must be made before the funds are ready to be deposited. For example, monies received from instructing a carry conceal class must be reconciled to the class roster. Since these funds are received off-site a more thorough review is necessary. Other funds in the cash box may not require this additional review and are prepared for deposit much sooner. For this reason, monies in the cash box are frequently deposited at separate times.
I hope that this summary helps to clarify any questions that you may have about the audit report. I certainly welcome your phone calls or personal visits to my office, if you have other questions.
Sheriff J. Kent Oberkrom