Auditor Fitzpatrick begins audit of Osage County

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick announced his office has started a regularly scheduled audit of Osage County, located in central Missouri. The audit officially commenced with an entrance meeting with county officials on Tuesday, December 9.

"Past audits found significant issues with governmental operations in Osage County, but also show county officials were willing to implement our recommendations with the goal of preventing the same mistakes from happening again. Our current audit provides a great opportunity to check in with Osage County to make sure county officials have followed the roadmap we gave them and continue to move in a direction toward improved efficiency and accountability," said Auditor Fitzpatrick.

The Missouri State Auditor's Office last issued a performance audit of Osage County in 2018. The report gave the county an overall rating of "fair" and found several errors and miscalculations related to property taxes. Specifically, auditors reviewed four years of calculations and found the county had collected $95,000 in excess property taxes. A previous audit released in 2014 had given the county a rating of "poor" and raised concerns about oversight and accounting for inventory and county purchases. 

Individuals may provide information confidentially for consideration during the audit of Osage County to the State Auditor's Whistleblower Hotline by calling 800-347-8597, emailing moaudit@auditor.mo.gov, or by visiting www.auditor.mo.gov/hotline.