Use of Equitable Sharing Revenues
By the Missouri Highway Patrol
State of Missouri

GR-50-01-008
August 31, 2001
Office of the Inspector General

The United States Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General has completed an audit of the use of equitable sharing revenues by the Missouri Highway Patrol. Equitable sharing revenues represent a share of the proceeds from the forfeiture of assets seized in the course of certain criminal investigations. From July 1, 1998, through June 30, 2000, the Missouri Highway Patrol received a total of $3,148,322 in equitable sharing revenues. For the same period, the Missouri Highway Patrol expended a total of $1,748,498 from their equitable sharing fund.

We determined that Missouri Highway Patrol generally complied with Department of Justice guidelines. However, our audit disclosed that the Missouri Highway Patrol did not separately account for federal forfeiture funds received from the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury. Contrary to the equitable sharing agreements that required these funds be accounted for separately, the Missouri Highway Patrol commingled the receipts into one fund and prorated the expenditures based on the percentage of revenue received from each agency.

The audit results are discussed in the Findings and Recommendations section of this report. Our audit scope and methodology appear in Appendix I.