ST. LOUIS — An audit highlighting management failures at the St. Louis Police Department, released Tuesday, also spurred calls for returning control of the state-run agency to the city.

A 47-page report by Missouri Auditor Susan Montee largely rehashed two years of scandals exposing a department that, in its own words, had "inadequate, ineffective and inefficient business practices" resulting in "extreme failures."

While questions linger about who's to blame, Montee credited Chief Dan Isom for dramatically improving oversight and said the department already started correcting areas of concern by the time her staff started its audit last fall of the period July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

Montee did not accuse any individual of wrongdoing, noting it was not a criminal investigation. She said that for years, "certainly there were issues in this department that were not being dealt with in an honest way."

Isom pointed to his efforts to clean up the department since the Board of Police Commissioners selected him as chief in October 2008 — particularly returning close to $4 million seized from felony suspects that the department had improperly held.

With regard to breakdowns, Isom vowed, "Those days are over."

State Senator-elect Joe Keaveny, D-St. Louis, said Tuesday he plans to pre-file a bill on Dec. 1 to return control of the department to the city. He called its structure "fundamentally flawed, creating a dysfunctional organization with no direct accountability."

The city Police Department is run by five commissioners. Four are appointed by the governor, and the mayor is always the fifth. The unique setup dates to the Civil War, when the Confederate-leaning Legislature wrested control of the police force from union-leaning leaders in St. Louis.

Mayor Francis Slay has long campaigned for ending the state control.

"We will not use the Police Department against the Confederacy," quipped his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford. "Let the people of St. Louis have their Police Department back."

On Tuesday, Police Board President Todd Epsten apologized for its failures and said that he, too, has questions about "whether the system we've had for 150 years is still viable."

Montee said she had no opinion on who should govern the police.

Then-Gov. Matt Blunt asked Montee in September 2008 to audit the department after the Post-Dispatch found that its towing contractor had short-changed taxpayers by nearly $700,000 over two years.

On Tuesday, Montee criticized the board's failure to monitor that contract with St. Louis Metropolitan Towing. She said her staff agreed with the department that the shortage was actually about $450,000.

The reason for the discrepant figures is unclear. The newspaper maintains its analysis is correct; Montee said her audit staff affirmed the department's methodology, and her spokeswoman said the department should let the newspaper review it.

The audit, which took five months and cost about $128,000, also found that the department lacked controls to prevent the theft of $22,000 from the evidence room. An additional $24,000 was listed as "unable to locate."

The audit also criticized the purchase last year of $10,000 worth of gold-plated badges for the chief and lieutenant colonels.

And it noted that at least 34 department employees had credit cards and were often allowed to ring up thousands of dollars in purchases without getting approval or even documenting the business use. Isom said he has ended the practice.

Several findings pointed to Isom's predecessor, Joe Mokwa, who retired in July 2008, days after the board said he'd been untruthful in its investigation into why his daughter had been allowed to drive cars impounded by the towing contractor.

Mokwa's lawyer, Neil Bruntrager, said Tuesday that his client has taken too much blame for the towing scandal.

"There were people who were paid to look at these things," he said. "There were lawyers and accountants — they reported to the board. They didn't report to the chief's office."

Asked who was most to blame — the board or Mokwa — Epsten, the board president, replied that there was "plenty of blame to go around."

The audit found that Mokwa made $1,800 in purchases — at clothing and department stores, at restaurants and on tickets — without documenting whether they were business-related. Mokwa later reimbursed the department for $700, the audit said, and the department assumed the other purchases were for business purposes.

Bruntrager said Mokwa retired believing he had paid any money back for personal purchases. Only this week did he find out he may have owed $284. Mokwa believed he had already paid it but sent a check in just to be safe.

The auditor also questioned why the board paid $109,000 in severance to Mokwa, or agreed to cover his legal bills for anything related to his employment.

Bruntrager claimed that Mokwa had tried to retire the week after the scandal broke but that the board twice voted not to accept his offer.

Only after Mokwa insisted upon retiring did the board agree to offer him severance, the lawyer said. Asked why the board would give extra money to somebody whom they didn't want to leave, Bruntrager said Mokwa "had a good lawyer."

Rainford noted that the day before the meeting, Slay had called for Mokwa to resign. He said Slay did not recall any votes to keep Mokwa, nor any groundswell of support asking him not to leave. Former board President Chris Goodson said the board only held one vote.

The audit also pointed out that Mokwa attended a 15-day conference in Australia for a Pacific Coast terrorism conference, which cost at least $1,950.

Bruntrager countered that Mokwa had attended the conference at the request of the FBI, which should have reimbursed the department; the department had no such records.

Bruntrager said he didn't know the basis for the auditors' figures, and wishes they had sought Mokwa's input, but, "No one asked to speak to him."