Announcements

Today, the Office of the Washington State Auditor released a legislatively-mandated performance audit of ballot rejection in 10 Washington State counties during the 2020 general election.

In the counties reviewed, election officials followed the law in determining whether to reject a ballot. However, the likelihood that a voter's ballot will be rejected varied greatly by county. And ballots cast by some demographic groups – including younger voters, male voters, and those belonging to certain racial and ethnic groups – have higher rejection rates than others.

SAO's Performance Audit team has more than 30 staff members who combine their unique professional and educational backgrounds to develop innovative approaches to helping Washington's government programs become more efficient and effective. Since 2005, our Performance Audit team has examined a variety of issues like workplace culture, student behavioral health prevention and intervention, bail practices, and IT security.

The number of unauditable governments in Washington has dropped dramatically, leaving only eight that have failed to provide basic financial records and cooperate with an audit by the Office of the Washington State Auditor.

The City of Tenino lost $280,309 in public funds after an employee sent the money out of state using a common electronic payment method, according to a fraud report released today by the Office of the Washington State Auditor (SAO).

With the new year comes new annual report filings. Our second quarterly update of the 2020 fiscal year financial data in the Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT) includes more governments so you can see where public money comes from and where it goes.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rolled on through 2021, Washington's public auditors kept up their essential work. The Office of the Washington State Auditor continued working closely—and remotely—with local governments and state agencies to ensure accountability and transparency for public resources.

The State Auditor's Office has finished updating the GAAP and

A former state Employment Security Department (ESD) employee misappropriated at least $315,282 in 2020, according to a fraud report released today by the Office of the Washington State Auditor. The investigation also identified $121,503 in questionable unemployment benefit payments associated with the same employee.

Updated: December 9, 2021

The State Auditor's Office will start the annual process of updating the BARS Manuals (GAAP and Cash) on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021.

During the updates, sections of both online BARS Manuals will be unavailable for your use. Once updated, they will be fully available for accounting and reporting guidance related to fiscal year 2021 and forward.

We will notify local government audit contacts via email when we have fully updated the BARS Manuals.

While the city of Wapato's financial safeguards have improved somewhat since the city's last audits, the Office of the Washington State Auditor found significant weaknesses in two audits released today.

“The city had a lot of ground to make up in instituting appropriate polices and controls after our last round of audits. Nevertheless, the public expects all governments to be accountable at all times,” State Auditor Pat McCarthy said. “I am concerned by the pace of improvement in Wapato.”