Local governments

The State Auditor's Office received 410 reports of suspected or known loss in 2020. While some of these reports were from citizens and whistleblowers, more than 80 percent of reports came from management at state agencies and local governments.

That's because state law (RCW 43.09.185) requires all state agencies and local governments to immediately notify SAO of any known or suspected loss of public resources or other illegal activity, including cyberattacks and other activities that potentially affect financial records or systems.

Originally Published: August 24, 2021

As you enter into new federally funded contracts this year, you need to know if your contractor has been banned from doing business with the federal government. Commonly referred to as suspension and debarment, these requirements are fairly easy to comply with, yet they are one of SAO's most common audit findings. We first ran this article in August 2021, and due to its importance, we're republishing it as a reminder.

Today the State Auditor's Office released an accountability audit of the City of Seattle, which included a review of the city's contract with Freedom Project and its subcontractor, King County Equity Now.

The audit determined the process the city used to award the contract was concerning. The audit resulted in a letter to city management, which outlined the issues auditors identified and their recommended improvements.

After hours of time and energy, you've submitted your annual report for fiscal year 2020. Congratulations! Now you may be asking, “Is there anything more I can do?” Our answer is, “Yes!”

Take a look at your data and answer these questions:

This article was originally published in the April 2021 edition of The Audit Connection newsletter.

State and federal governments invested more than $14.6 billion in Medicaid—known as Apple Health in Washington—during fiscal year 2020. With one in four Washingtonians enrolled, Medicaid is one of the most important services the state funds. As one of the state's major expenditures, accountability for Medicaid spending is critical. Legislators, agency leaders and the public need access to facts about Medicaid spending so the program can continue helping Washingtonians in need.

It's easy to assume larger local governments have no problems fully implementing best practices for segregation of duties. While segregating duties can be easier for larger governments with more employees, they can struggle with the process, too. The State Auditor's Office has some suggestions for navigating challenges on your journey to segregating duties!

“That's the department's responsibility!”

With the recent and continued influx of federal funding, you might make more subawards than in the past. (A subward is providing your grant funds to other agencies to carry out a portion of the grant program.) Passing along your money to others doesn't relieve you of grant compliance requirements – it actually adds responsibilities for you to monitor your subgrantees (referred to as “subrecipient monitoring”). Since this is a frequent area reviewed in our audits, here are a few tips and resources to keep in mind:

The Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT) has been updated with fiscal year 2020 data submitted by local governments! As of June 30, 2021, our Office received 100 percent of the 2020 annual reports from nine government types. Interested in who they are and how other government types are progressing? This interactive infogram provides you all the facts.

Cash is the heartbeat of government operations, especially for smaller cash basis governments. For better or worse, without cash there is no government spending. And without spending, there are no government services. As the old saying goes – cash is king! So how much cash is needed to keep a cash –basis government's operations humming? The proper amount of “cash balance sufficiency” (CBS) for a government depends on each government's spending priorities and what it hopes to accomplish for its citizens.