Audit: Missouri's House and Senate need better personnel, records policies

Missouri's Capitol in Jefferson City
Missouri's Capitol in Jefferson City

In separate audit reports, State Auditor Nicole Galloway's staff said both the Missouri House and Senate need improved personnel policies as well as better definitions of which records are open to the public and which ones are closed.

The audits are part of a series of regular reviews the auditor's office conducts.

Both chambers revised their intern and sexual harassment policies following last year's resignations of then-House Speaker John Diehl and state Sen. Paul LeVota, the reports noted, but both chambers still need to improve personnel policies.

For instance, auditors said, neither chamber has a policy to provide whistleblower protections to employees from retaliation for reporting abuse of authority, or from reporting violations of the law witnessed in the workplace.

The audits also recommend both chambers comply fully with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and provide employees with leave to care for returning service members.

Both chambers say individual lawmakers' records are not public under the state's "Sunshine" law; but, the two reports noted, unclear and incomplete open records policies have led to confusion over what is and is not open to the public. Even for generally agreed open records, in many cases documents were not available or did not exist for audit staff to review - including some interim committees' records.

The complete audit of the Missouri House of Representatives is available here.

The complete auditor of the Missouri Senate is available here.