Annual report: The Office of the Washington State Auditor’s window into public spending during 2023

The State Auditor’s Office invites you to scroll through an interactive report of our activities during fiscal year 2023. We are proud of our efforts to work with local governments and state agencies to ensure accountability and transparency for public resources.

We conducted more than 2,400 audits on the public’s behalf during fiscal year 2023, including some new lines of work. Our Office became the first in the nation to review every investigation into law enforcement’s use of deadly force in our state. We launched audits of electric utilities’ compliance with the Clean Energy Transformation Act. And we developed no-cost cyber checkups, a new review aimed at helping local governments quickly assess their vulnerability to common threats, along with steps to take to improve their security.

Other work focused on issues of common concern:

• In January 2022, auditors found more than 6,000 new and older sexual assault evidence kits remained untested.
• Auditors also revealed that shorter wait times for callers and faster benefit payments to Washington’s unemployed were primarily due to a decline in the number of jobless people, not to recent state reforms.
• And in partnership with the Municipal Research and Services Center, we updated our guides and checklists about open public meetings to include new requirements for hybrid and remote meetings.

Here is a PDF version of the document, which includes printing instructions at the end.

Happy holidays, and thank you for being partners in public accountability.

We want to hear from you. Questions, comments or concerns? Email webmaster@sao.wa.gov.