State audit finds minor issues in Cape County Collector's Office; overall good rating

An audit of the Cape Girardeau County Collector’s Office has identified three minor deficiencies related to the county’s property tax system, all of which are being addressed, according to the Cape Girardeau County Commission.

The audit, performed earlier this year, was released last week by Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway and was reviewed at Thursday’s Cape Girardeau County Commission meeting.

Overall, the audit rated the operations of the county collector’s office as “good” and said the office is “well managed.” However, it also identified relatively minor issues — in the areas of system access, additions and abatements and overpayments — in which processes and procedures should be revised.

“Controls and procedures over the property tax system need improvement,” according to the audit summary, which noted the collector’s office processed property taxes and other revenue totaling approximately $72.4 million for the year ending Feb. 28, 2018.

“The county has not adequately restricted the county collector’s access to the property tax system,” according to the audit. “The county commission does not review or approve most property tax additions and abatements and annual settlements were not complete and accurate.”

The audit report went on to say “refunds of overpayments related to errors in property tax records are not always properly recorded in the property tax system.”

Regarding property tax system access, the report asserted “the county has not adequately restricted the county collector’s access to the property tax system,” and noted since the collector is responsible for collecting payments, “good internal controls require the county collector not have access rights allowing alteration of property tax information.”

In the area of additions and abatements, the audit summary reported “annual settlements were not complete and accurate.”

In response to the audit findings, the County Commission reported to the Missouri Auditor’s Office “the County Commission has limited the property tax system access and implemented policy controls to ensure no one person can both assess and collect taxes.”

The county commission response added “while the county commission approved all abatements and additions annually, the county collector’s office, as of March 14, 2019, is submitting monthly additions and abatements to the county commission for approval versus reporting the net change as was being done.”

The county commission addressed the issue of property tax overpayment adjustments by saying the assessors office has “discontinued issuing ‘assessed value credits’ to offset overpayments” and moving forward “a refund will be initiated by the county assessor’s office and executed by the county collector’s office.”

“We were pleased with the audit report,” said Barbara Gholson who was sworn in as the Cape Girardeau County collector Dec. 1. She noted very few state audit reports have zero recommendations for improvements or process changes. “In our case, we have accepted all of the auditor’s recommendations. Everything has been updated and addressed.”

The Missouri Auditor’s Office performs “closeout audits” to assist in transitions when new county collectors are elected or appointed to their positions and to “ensure that newly elected officials are aware of areas for improvement.”

jwolz@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630