State audit: Taxpayers paid travel for Parson book signings, state employees, wives to attend Cotton Bowl

(From State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick)

A new report from Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick gives the Office of Governor a "fair" rating while making several recommendations for the office to improve in areas such as record retention and travel policies. The audit, which is the 57th report released by the State Auditor's Office in the 2026 calendar year, focuses on a period of time when Mike Parson served as governor.

The audit found the governor's office did not always maintain documentation indicating the purpose of state-paid trips, and paid travel costs for the governor for non-business purposes that did not appear necessary to office operations or a reasonable use of state funds. 

The report documents 174 trips on state aircraft during the audit period that were paid by the governor's office, with costs totaling $375,160. For these flights, records did not specify the purpose of the flight and indicated only a general purpose, such as "Flight for Governor Parson." Audit staff reviewed media advisories and releases and compared them to flight records and could not identify a specific purpose for state business for 58 of the 174 trips. 

The report also documents 16 flights to various destinations in the state for purposes that included book signing events for the governor's commemorative biography. The audit report notes for all but one of the trips the governor participated in various other activities in addition to the book signing events. The report also found a December 2023 flight to the Cotton Bowl football game violated state travel policy by including spouses of governor's office employees.

The report also identifies payments to top level employees for compensatory time in violation of state policy. Specifically, the office made compensatory time payments to 4 top level employees on two occasions totaling $28,058. The report notes proper authorization and explanation of the unusual circumstances justifying compensatory time payments to top level employees is needed to demonstrate the payments are not bonuses in violation of the Missouri Constitution. 

The office also provided tuition reimbursements to employees for coursework and fees that were not allowed by office policy and/or state policy, and/or not approved in accordance with office and state policies. During the audit period, 3 employees received 12 total payments for tuition reimbursements totaling $30,449.

Another finding in the report focuses on the failure of the governor's office to completely archive records with the State Archives for the former governor's tenure as required by state law. Personnel from the former and current administration of the governor's office and personnel from the Office of Administration could not locate and provide copies of those records for the audit. Records not provided included the former governor's calendar, some office policies and an employee manual, Sunshine Law request logs, and an internal control plan.

Other findings in the report include inappropriately used appropriations intended for governor's office operations to subsidize the expenditures of other agencies totaling approximately $472,000 in fiscal year 2024, a lack of adequate measures to minimize staff travel costs and comply with the State Travel Policy, and inconsistent documentation to support the business purpose and costs of food served at events hosted by the Governor, as required by state policy.

The closeout audit for the Office of Governor is available here.