An audit of the Missouri Department of Agriculture takes issue with some pay raises, failure to carry out some inspections, and incomplete reports from a board that promotes the state's wine industry.
But state Auditor Tom Schweich says the Agriculture Department received an overall "good" rating in spite of those issues.
One of the key questions is why 10 employees were given unusually large pay raises over a two-year period by former director Jon Hagler.
"Now, (the department) defended it on the grounds (that) there were additional responsibilities and superior performances (by these employees), and we understand that," Schweich said, "but we think it's important that when a state employee gets a big additional chunk of taxpayer dollars that it be very clearly justified … we don't consider this to be a major finding, but we do always report when there are large salary increases."
Those pay increases ranged in size from 6 percent to 30 percent. The Fiscal Year 2013 budget, passed by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, included a 2 percent raise for state workers earning less than $70,000 a year.
Hagler resigned as director in October 2013 around the same time that a former employee accused him of creating a hostile work environment. Hagler defended himself then, telling the Associated Press that he was a "tough but fair manager."
Schweich says the audit did not delve into "specific cases with specific people" or other personnel issues.
"Issues about civil rights are the province of the attorney general, not the auditor," Schweich said.
The audit also found that the Missouri Grape and Wine Board neglected to include how much money it spent, and on what, when it filed annual reports for Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013.
"It was an oversight on their part," Schweich said. "They were not fully aware of what the requirements were that they had to put in their budgets and in their tracking and in their transparency requirements, and they've committed to fixing that problem."
The audit also found that the Agriculture department failed to inspect a small percentage of petroleum devises, meters that measure grain moisture and some scales.
The full audit can be viewed here.
Follow Marshall Griffin on Twitter: @MarshallGReport
