JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State Auditor Nicole Galloway today released an audit of the 32nd Judicial Circuit in Cape Girardeau County. The report gave a rating of “fair” and made several recommendations to improve financial controls and procedures.
The audit found the circuit clerk’s office did not complete bank reconciliations for either the Criminal Division or Civil Division bank accounts for long periods of time. Both accounts showed significant balance discrepancies before the Civil Division account was reconciled by the Office of State Courts Administrator in 2020 and combined with the Criminal Division account. The audit also showed accounting duties have not been adequately segregated, and there has not been satisfactory independent supervisory review of accounting and bank records.
The audit also found the court did not assess a required $25 fee (known as a time-payment fee) on approximately 1,000 juvenile cases, and the circuit clerk did not periodically review outstanding court costs owed to the circuit court. In addition, court clerks processed fee adjustments without an independent or supervisory review, periodic reviews of user access to court systems have not been performed to ensure access rights are commensurate with job responsibilities, and annual budgets were not prepared for several court funds.
A complete copy of the report is online here.
