Summary

This audit of the Office of the State Attorney, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, focused primarily on assets, liabilities, fund equities, revenues and cash receipts, expenditures and disbursements, budgetary controls, management reporting, motor vehicle assignment and use, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act cases, Forfeiture and Investigative Support Trust Fund (FIST) activities, public assistance fraud cases, and workers’ compensation fraud cases. For each of these areas, our audit included examinations of various transactions (as well as events and conditions) during the period February 1, 1997, through January 31, 1998.

Matters coming to our attention relating to deficiencies in the design or operation of the internal control for those operations audited are as follows:

Revenues and Cash Receipts

During the audit period, the Office of the State Attorney received payments pursuant to, but not limited to, agreements with State and local entities that provide for the reimbursement of costs of prosecution, charges to the public for photocopies and/or duplicate videotapes, charges to employees for personal telephone calls, and travel reimbursements. Collections, made in the form of cash or checks, totaled approximately $1.4 million during the audit period. Our audit tests disclosed that Office procedures for receipting, processing, and depositing cash collections should be improved to ensure that collections are properly accounted for and deposited in a timely manner. (See paragraphs 20 through 22.)

The State Attorney’s written response to the audit findings and recommendations included in audit report No. 13288 is presented as Exhibit D.