LIBERTY, Mo. -- Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee painted a concerning portrait of the Liberty School District Thursday night in an audit of the district.

The audit shows things like a lack of bidding on school building projects, no cell phone usage policies and other financial buffers that could affect the district's accreditation.

For a link to the full report click here.

The audit comes in the wake of criminal charges against one former superintendent and what one other former superintendent calls a forced resignation.

"It just seems like a huge problem to me," district resident Cindy Wold said at the meeting.

A major failure cited in the report was a lack of bidding for engineering construction projects, with the same two firms used since 1999, resulting in an 89 percent rate increase over nine years.

"The state statute requires bidding on these for a reason," Montee said.

The audit also covered former Superintendent Scott Taveau, who's now charged with felony stealing.

Montee said his post-retirement consulting contract was undefined and unreasonable, paying him $86,500 for 550 hours of work, or $157 per hour, compared to $83 per hour when he was a superintendent working full time.

"Did he just have a checkbook and could decide what was spent where?" Wold asked at the meeting.

"Apparently, yes," Montee responded.

Another part of the report that drew audible moans from the crowd assembled was the fact that the district had 590 cell phones and no policy on personal usage. The district ran up over $1,000 in overage charges for text messages sent in one month.

Montee attributed much of the problem to the past administration, even though many audience members questioned the current board's role, too.

"I would not say we have illegal issues here," Montee said. "What we had was a district that was somewhat out of control in terms of spending, no planning, and no real oversight."

Montee said many of the oversight and spending issues have already been addressed following a private audit last year.

She said the district eliminated 300 cell phones.

Montee said there was still much work to be done.