Auditor
The Justice Court has room for improvement in several areas. During our audit we noted 25 findings that can be categorized into 3 areas:
The Auditor’s office made specific recommendations for each of the 25 findings within the Justice Court. Additional details can be found within the audit report and the citation of county policies. We recommend that the County ensure training is occurring for all fiscal managers. This training should cover existing countywide policies, state policies and county ordinances; as well as best practices.
We strongly recommend the Justice Court Fiscal Manager refrain from performing cashiering duties and signing checks to strengthen segregation of duties. Additionally, the Justice Court should develop additional controls, documented with written policies and procedures, for processing payments received in mail or the drop box. We recommend funds received should be deposited within three days of receipt.
The Justice Court should close accounts not in use and make sure that account custodians and bank signatories be updated when staff changes.
We recommend that the Justice Court have consistent policies on which controlled assets under $100 are tracked. Also, the controlled asset at the Judge’s home should be documented on the asset list and we recommend a plan on how that be returned to the Justice Court in the future.
State law and County policy require employees with a conflict of interest to annually file a disclosure with the County Council. The Fiscal Manager has an LLC which is selling software to the Justice Court. We recommend more controls and perhaps a competitive bidding process.