Today the Office of the Washington State Auditor released a fraud report and audit of Mason County Fire District No. 12, showing almost $70,000 in misappropriated public funds, as well as $95,000 in unsupported expenses.
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The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) releases new accounting standards nearly every year, and local governments have to evaluate and implement them. While each standard is different, the best practices for implementation are the same. That’s why we’ve updated our Best Practices for Implementing Accounting Standards to guide you through the process.
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Hello, WFOA 2022! The State Auditor’s Office is excited to be reconnecting with our partners in government accountability at the first in-person WFOA annual conference in three years. We’re bringing our ‘A’ (audit) game this year with four pre-conference trainings and 13 sessions.
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The Office of the Washington State Auditor’s new performance audit – I-1163: Addressing testing barriers for home care aides – found that home care aides face several barriers to becoming certified, including access to fewer tests sites and long testing delays.
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While credit cards have many benefits, they also create an increased risk for misuse, mismanagement and fraud. That’s why SAO recommends periodically performing a credit card cleanup to keep your program running efficiently and securely.
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Fraudsters can impersonate your employees and vendors to redirect Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments meant for payroll direct deposits or vendor payments. You need to stay vigilant and ensure your government has strong internal controls. To help you, SAO has developed a new guide that offers advice on developing ACH payment process policies and employee training, establishing a verification process, and monitoring for unauthorized payee account changes.
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SAO has a suite of resources that can help you evaluate your payroll process and explore ways to improve it. Our guides, checklists and articles provide valuable advice that you can use right away to ensure your internal controls are keeping your government safe.
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Fraudsters are constantly evolving their wire fraud schemes, which is why you need to ensure your government has strong internal controls in place to prevent them. To help you, SAO has developed a new resource: Best Practices for Sending Wire Transfers.
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When was the last time you took a hard look at your accounts payable process to ensure it’s still designed appropriately and functioning properly? Over the last year, SAO has published several resources and blog articles to help you improve your accounts payable system. We’ve collected them all here so that you can quickly access them.
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Navigating federal requirements and establishing controls in your government to ensure compliance can be challenging—even for governments that routinely receive significant amounts of federal dollars. That’s why over the past year we’ve updated some of our resources and published several articles on federal program requirements. With more local governments potentially needing Single Audits over the next few years, SAO’s blog articles and resources can help you address potential internal control weaknesses early to avoid audit issues.
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