JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State Auditor Nicole Galloway has released her office’s audit of the Office of License Collector (OLC) for the City of St. Louis. The OLC collects various licensing fees and taxes assessed against businesses within the City of St. Louis, and collected approximately $56 million during the year that ended May 31, 2020. The audit, which gave the OLC a rating of “good,” is part of the ongoing, comprehensive audit of St. Louis City.
“My audit of the Office of License Collector found several areas where improvements would provide better oversight of taxpayer dollars,” Auditor Galloway said. “Based on the audit findings, we’ve identified ways for the OLC to operate more effectively. I encourage the License Collector to fully implement our recommendations to better serve the citizens of St. Louis.”
The audit found OLC staff failed to sufficiently reconcile the office’s six bank accounts. Some outstanding reconciling items were improperly removed during reconciling without OLC personnel determining if the items were resolved. OLC staff also did not prepare a monthly listing of liabilities for each bank account, reconcile bank accounts timely, adequately segregate accounting duties, or perform a satisfactory independent supervisory review of all accounting and bank records. The audit recommended the OLC establish procedures to address the findings.
In addition, the audit found that weaknesses exist in the OLC’s disbursement policies and procedures, including inadequate segregation of duties and a lack of an independent or supervisory review of the disbursement process. Formal policies and procedures also need to be in place to ensure disbursements are appropriate, the audit determined.
The audit also found that the OLC cannot ensure businesses are paying the correct application fees, because office personnel do not perform a documented review of business license application information to verify accuracy. OLC personnel do not always perform documented site inspections of manufacturer assets to ensure accuracy of assets declared for tax purpose. The office also has not performed a recent, documented physical inventory of its own capital assets. The audit recommended OLC ensure these measures are taken.
A copy of the report can be viewed here.
