Auditor: No Checks And Balances Made Marionville Theft Possible:

Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee

In a scathing thirty-five page report released October 11th, State Auditor Susan Montee revealed that her office found there were no checks and balances in place that made the alleged theft of money from the city of Marionville by a former city clerk possible.
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Montee says only one person, former city clerk Claudia White, had control of money that came into and left  city hall.
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"This individual handled everything but property taxes, and that was every single thing from paying any of the bills to collecting any of the money, adjusting the utility rates, writing off tax balances," Montee explained.
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The audit uncovered a number of questionable transactions that total at least $17,107 that can be directly tied to White. 

The audit revealed that White paid herself $13,326 for work that she did not perform that was paid from the city's general revenue account.  Early on in the investigation into missing money from city coffers it was alleged that White had not paid her sewer bill in several years, but had adjusted it to reflect she had.  White also wrote several personal checks to the city that were never deposited.
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Bob Duda, who was a former city council member but is now mayor of the small Lawrence County town, says White did not have to report to anyone.  Duda says he has implemented changes at city hall after the uncovered in June of 2009.

Lawrence County Prosecutor Robert "Bob" George

In October of 2009, Lawrence County Prosecutor Bob George charged White with felony stealing but drooped those charges after White's attorney, Don Trotter, pushed for a preliminary hearing.  "We dropped the charges against White with every intention to re-file them as soon as we get an updated report from the Highway Patrol or the auditors office.  The only reason we dismissed them before was so that we could get an accurate figure of the loss.  I anticipate filing those as soon as I have the follow up report,"  said George. 

Montee says it's possible that there is additional money missing from the city, but that their record's only date back to 2004.