Performance audits

Washington state agencies buy about half of their staff’s air travel through travel agents, and do so following state guidelines, a new performance audit found. 

After identifying significant fees charged to state agencies by travel agents, the Office of the Washington State Auditor conducted the audit to examine the costs and benefits of using travel agents. The audit also reviewed whether agencies were following state requirements in doing so. 

Washington has taken some steps to improve the number of children tested for lead exposure, but it has not fully implemented any of the recommendations from a previous report on the issue, according to a follow-up audit published today. 

When payments to a government vendor rise unusually fast, it can create concerns about possible fraud or improper payments. However, steep increases in vendor payments can also be legitimate and appropriately approved, as a new performance audit found to be the case at one of Washington’s largest state agencies.  

New safeguards are in place for Washington special education students placed with private contractors, but gaps remain in those reforms. Some schools do not visit facilities in-person every year as required, and some state investigations are not conducted as quickly as they could be, a new performance audit found.

Washington’s efforts to raise awareness of human trafficking have become outdated in some instances, but agencies generally follow the law, a new performance audit found. 

A landmark Washington initiative succeeded in making home care patients safer but also created a long, arduous certification process for their aides – a process about two-thirds of applicants never complete, according to a new audit. 

The IT system used to distribute funding to Washington’s 300 schools and districts, serving 1 million students, is both critical to public education and extremely complex.  

Washington’s police officers are far from completing training mandated by Initiative 940, a new performance audit found. 

The initiative, which became the Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act, requires 40 hours of continuing training for law enforcement officers. The state Criminal Justice Training Commission developed a curriculum that includes: 

A program intended to help underserved people access online services repeatedly failed to follow state guidance – and at times intentionally ignored grant requirements, a new performance audit found: Assessing the Department of Commerce's Management of the Digital Navigator Program (PDF).

Several courts in Washington are interested in expanding alternatives to bail, but they appear to use such pretrial services infrequently today and face barriers to doing more, a new performance audit found.