The clerk-treasurer of a small city in the Cascades misappropriated more than $900,000 in public funds over nearly a decade, despite warning signs that improper activity was occurring, the Office of the Washington State Auditor found in a fraud report issued today.
Most governments own a variety of assets that they track and inventory, beyond what they do for financial reporting purposes. We call them small and attractive assets here in Washington state, but across the nation, people refer to them as theft-sensitive assets, walk-away assets or controlled assets.
Our Office would like to thank every local government that filed its fiscal year 2023 annual report on time! This year, about 86 percent of local governments met the annual filing deadline (more than 1500 total), proving once again that compliance, accountability and transparency matter in Washington state.
Five years ago, the Office of the Washington State Auditor advised the town of Cusick that it had inadequate controls over its payroll and credit cards. Had the small government followed its audit recommendations then, it likely could have avoided more recent, and much larger, losses.
It’s fairly common for local governments to use a collection agency in some capacity, such as to collect outstanding fees or fines that the government was unable to collect on its own. But how do you know if your collection agency is doing a good job? A collection agency acts on your behalf, collecting delinquent debts and remitting money back to you so you can use it in your operation.
In this article, we will discuss tips on how to monitor your collection agency to evaluate its performance.
How long has it been since your government evaluated its credit card program? Was it when we published our original best practice resource in July 2019, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic?
The Center for Government Innovation at the State Auditor’s Office is celebrating: its newest service, the cyber checkup, is one year old. These checkups provide a fast, no-cost, independent review of local government cybersecurity programs.
Certain cities and counties in Washington are required to meet a 120-day deadline to make decisions on development permits. However, the actual processing time varies widely between localities and permit types, a new performance audit found.
Several irrigation and drainage districts near Yakima hired the same bookkeeper who misappropriated public funds through a variety of schemes, according to a report published today by the Office of the Washington State Auditor.
An audit released today by the Office of the Washington State Auditor revealed a significant lack of controls over financial operations in the Pierce County Superior Court Clerk’s Office, including taking no action to pay out several large accounts held in trust.
“Simply put, the results of this audit are a cause for serious concern. The financial operations of the clerk’s office have a direct impact on those who trust in our court system to resolve their legal issues and handle funds attentively,” said State Auditor Pat McCarthy.