16.575 - U.S. Department of Justice - Crime Victim Assistance Grant. This grant provides the salary and expenses for the Prosecuting Attorney's Victim Advocate. The County Clerk utilized the year-end expenses for the Victim Advocate grant effort which included salary, office expenses, mileage and tr...
16.575 - U.S. Department of Justice - Crime Victim Assistance Grant. This grant provides the salary and expenses for the Prosecuting Attorney's Victim Advocate. The County Clerk utilized the year-end expenses for the Victim Advocate grant effort which included salary, office expenses, mileage and training expenses. Our records show that a grant reimbursement of $34,583 was received for 2023. In the future, the County Clerk will ensure the total grant reimbursement amounts are utilized. 16.738 - U.S. Department of Justice - Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. Our research revealed that this grant was received by our Sheriff's Office. However, the grant application and approval was not provided to the County Clerk's office. Therefore, she was unable to reflect this grant in the budget document. We have asked the Sheriff's Office to send us their grant applications so we are able to set-up a tracking system in the future. 20.205 - U.S. Department of Transportation - Highway Planning and Construction. These funds are pass-through grants from the federal government to the Missouri Department of Transportation to fund bridge replacement projects under the BRO Program. The financial audit for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, (finding 2022-003) cited Benton County for improperly accounting for these SEFA grants. The original SEFA amount in 2022 was $428,993 and was corrected to show $343,194. The difference was the 20% local match for these grants. The 2023 audit indicates that the County should report 100% of the grant, not just the 80% that will represent the federal/state funds. The County utilized the guidance from the 2022 to report for the 2023 projects, however, this was incorrect due the source of the funds used for matching. Benton County will ensure that 100% of the federal grants will be reflected in the financial documents moving forward for projects that are funded with soft match credit from the Missouri Department of Transportation.