Clinton County Receive Scathing Audit Report

The Missouri State Auditor’s Office has given the Clinton County Commission and County Clerk a rating of “poor” following the identification of several concerns regarding the county’s financial controls.

The audit report says late filings by the County Clerk and remittances of payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service resulted in the county paying penalty and interest fees of nearly $74,000 that were not necessary. Auditor Nicole Galloway’s office also says Clinton County still owes the IRS $142,863 for past due amounts from 2019 to 2021.

The audit was initiated following whistleblower hotline contacts made to the State Auditor’s Office regarding the handling of county payroll and related employee benefits and late payments of county bills. The Clinton County Commission requested the audit.

The audit reports the County Clerk failed to ensure retirement contributions withheld from employee paychecks were accurate and failed to maintain accurate accounting records.

The report also claims that several duplicate and erroneous payments were made to vendors with no one aware of the payment errors until the actual vendors contacted the county or refunded the overpayments. In one instance, a vendor was paid $71,536 by the County Clerk’s office when the vendor was owed only $5,435. In addition, the County Commission and County Clerk also did not ensure bills were paid timely, resulting in charges of more than $1,000 for late credit card payments and $500 for late lease and other bill payments.