State auditor completes follow up on Osage County

The state auditor Tuesday completed a follow-up review of operations in Osage County after the county received a poor rating in 2014.

The auditor reviewed the county’s procedures over rock and surplus property purchases after the county received concerns about the possible misuse of funds by the former road and bridge foreman.

The road and bridge department implemented strengthened controls over rock purchases by maintaining a spreadsheet of all purchases and providing weekly reports of rock applied to county roads.

The county commission implemented a procedure to monitor and limit surplus property purchases.

In 2014, it was determined the county payroll records and policies needed improvement. A review of time sheets in February revealed compensatory time was incorrectly calculated. A newly revised county employee manual requires all time sheets to be signed by the employee and supervisor.

The 2014 audit found the county clerk didn’t maintain centralized records of vacation, sick time, or comp time.

The county clerk now provides a monthly computerized report of leave balances and activities to each department, and departments are responsible for reviewing the balances of each of their employees for activities.

The county collector is now being adequately reviewed after the 2014 audit revealed their financial activities were not being reviewed.

Last year’s audit showed the sheriff’s bookkeeper did not deposit money received into the fee account in a timely manner.

This year’s follow-up shows that sheriff’s department did not account for the number of bond forms issued or keep a log of them.