LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Earlier this year, the city of Detroit misplaced a $1 million check from its school system that wasn't found until a month later, sitting in a desk drawer at city hall, the Detroit News reported Friday. The report cited a spokesman for Detroit's emergency manager as saying the incident is symbolic of the city's antiquated systems that helped it slide into a bankruptcy filing last month, with the spokesman adding that modern governments use electronic transfers and no longer use checks. The report also cited other bureaucratic obstacles facing the city, such as a cost of $62 to process each municipal employee's paycheck, compared to a U.S. public-sector average of $18.