Local governments

At this year’s Washington Finance Officers Association (WFOA) conference in Kenne

The latest audits of a troubled Mason County fire district show its well-documented disregard for the protection of public funds continued for years until its governing board was replaced in 2024.

The Office of the Washington State Auditor has published fiscal year 2025 data in our latest update of the Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT).

As first mentioned in our recently updated resource, Best practices for credit card programs (PDF), reviewing your credit card program each year can help ensure only appropriate people have credit cards, credit limits do not exceed business needs, and that you received the proper rebate

A new indicator made just for schools

School district finances are tied to student enrollment in Washington state, making even modest shifts in student counts worth attention. Increases or decreases can have direct and sometimes immediate impacts on a district’s financial position. To help make that connection, we’ve added the Change in Enrollment financial health indicator to FIT, joining the other important indicators already present in the tool.

If you are familiar with segregation of duties, then you might envision separating duties for a cash receipting or a payroll process. But did you know you should segregate duties when designing internal controls to comply with federal award requirements?

Because our Office has fielded questions from local governments about the sometimes-confusing fiscal relationship between Washington counties and the special purpose districts (SPDs) they serve (like fire districts and public hospital districts), we researched the topic to clarify the relevant statutory requirements. You can find the Requirements of countie

As we close out this year’s annual report filing campaign, we want to thank the many local governments that submitted their reports and helped make this reporting season a success.

Washington governments take good stewardship seriously. A key part of this stewardship is understanding when and how governments must report suspected losses, including the personal use of government credit cards.

There is much to think about when employees leave your employment, including hiring and training the new employee and divvying up duties in the meantime. Human resources might refer to this as “offboarding.” You might have someone complete a checklist to ensure departing employees return items like ID badges, building keys, cell phones or computers.