More Incompetence From Vincent at Blunt's Department of Revenue

Perhaps if Trish Vincent, Gov. Blunt's Director of Revenue, wasn't spending all of her time stonewalling the State Auditor and handing out fee offices to the Governor's political cronies, she might have a little time to actually manage her department.  And if she did, maybe they wouldn't have thrown away $55,000 of the taxpayers money.

Here's the AP story:

The Department of Revenue acknowledged Thursday that it printed 20,000 sets of duplicate license plates, 1,502 of which already had been distributed to motorists before officials learned of the mistake July 8.

The department said it notified the Missouri State Highway Patrol of the potential law enforcement problem July 11, but it hadn't publicized the problem when The Associated Press inquired about it Thursday.

The mistake will cost the state about $55,000 to print new license plates, plus the cost of shipping them to motor vehicle licensing offices and individuals who were given the wrong plates.

 It's no wonder that Blunt and Vincent don't want State Auditor McCaskill to have access to the DOR records.  If they can't keep track of what license plate numbers they have handed out, how can you expect them to keep track of all the state property they have given away to the Governor's political friends?

Submitted by Roy Temple on July 21, 2005 - 6:54pm
Topics:

How are DOR employees to report abuse?

Submitted by Yogi on July 22, 2005 - 8:40pm.

DOR employees are in a real bind.  How do they report the mismanagement that is ruining the Quality Award winning DOR?  Vincent has told them not talk to the State Auditor.   Even if they risk their jobs and talk to the State Auditor, Vincent can hide behind the confidentiality statute and not produce any documents that may show she is ignoring the statutes.  (Or as she refers to them "legal mumbo jumbo") She has eliminated a division referenced by statute, and she allegedly has waived taxes legally due.  Vincent does not have the statutory authority to waive taxes.  But to whom does the loyal long term DOR employee, report these possible abuses?

Vincent wants to claim her internal audit staff has done a fine job.  Right, this is the same internal audit staff that failed to set up adequate internal controls to prevent the current license plate fiasco from happening.  Instead of firing the Director of  Internal Audit, Vincent promoted her.  Oops!

No use telling the boy-gov of Trish’s incompetence, he won’t even investigate.  After all Trish could run Bond and Ashcroft’s  campaigns.  Why would anyone think she couldn’t manage a state tax department?  I think Trish needs to renew the supscriptions on the management magazines she canceled.  She has definitely shown she needs them.

Boy-Gov should check into the DOR before he is further embarrassed.  Jessica Robinson knows the honest people at the DOR, the gov should ask her to check it out.  Although Trish and Lowell have employees afraid to speak the truth.  The honest taxpaying citizens of Missouri deserve better.  Ironically, Vincent is demoting or discouraging the very employees Duane Benton and Ray Wagner promoted.  Amazing!!

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WHERE'S THE REST OF THE STORY

Submitted by justab321 on July 21, 2005 - 11:00pm.

The AP story mentions...."and on July 13 began mailing letters and replacement plates directly to motorists who had received the wrong license plates." 

That's swell of Trish to try and make good to the customers she inconvienienced, but what happened to the plates they were originally isssued in error?  Does the customer still have them, and the expiration tabs too?  Do they now have two sets of plates?   Hmmm.    This could create some serious public safety concerns, not to mention some additional loss (on top of the $55,000 already wasted) for Missouri highways.   

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Vincent too busy promoting self, misses details

Submitted by pilar111 on July 22, 2005 - 8:01am.

Trish is guest writer:

http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050718/OPINIONS02/507180320/1006/OPINIONS

DOR Director Trish Vincent has been so busy writing opeds,supplying shoulder shots and letters to the editors defending herself in newspapers around the state that this little detail..................extra expiration tabs floating around didn't come on her radar. 

LETTER from Post Dispatch: Audit cooperation

Tuesday, Jul. 19 2005

Revenue department cooperates fully with audit requests

As director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, I take issue with the July
14 story "McCaskill will meet with Blunt over spat." This department is
cooperating fully with Ms. McCaskill on two audits.

The auditor has the right to review financial records of state government
agencies. She is not, however, the state's management consultant, nor does she
have the right to sensitive personal information of Missouri residents.

Recently, the auditor has leapt outside the bounds of her office by seeking
taxpayer, driver and motor-vehicle documents that contain income and Social
Security numbers of residents. We oppose this attempt to access this
information, which is not related to auditing the finances of state agencies.

In six months, the Department of Revenue has received four times as many
requests for information as were received in the last 12 months of Gov. Bob
Holden's administration. Many of these requests are unrelated to the auditor's
duties.

The Department of Revenue has taken action to improve efficiency and
accountability. Since January, we have quadrupled the size of our internal
auditing staff, while reducing the number of employees by 16.5 percent, and we
have instituted accountability measures for the state's contract license
offices and saved $10 million for taxpayers.

I hope the auditor will move beyond political rhetoric and focus on accounting
for tax dollars. The Department of Revenue will remain focused on recognizing
cost savings and providing full disclosure as required by law.

Trish Vincent
Director,
Missouri Department of Revenue
Jefferson City

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