Local governments

The State Auditor's Office (SAO) performs almost 200 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) reviews each year. Local governments may also submit their ACFR to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. As part of their ACFR reviews, SAO and GFOA identified several common errors that could affect your government's ability to obtain this certificate.

Here are some common errors and pitfalls to be on the lookout for when preparing your ACFR:

The Center for Government Innovation has added two procurement-related resources to the Resources Database in recent months:

YAKIMA – The Office of the Washington State Auditor published two audits of the City of Wapato today, documenting significant violations of government standards.

By Toni Nelson and Steve Hawley,
Municipal Research and Services Center

A “bank sweep” is a process where you check with financial institutions to make sure no bank accounts exist for your organization that you aren't aware of.

In June 2017, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement No. 87, a new accounting and reporting standard regarding leases.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 75, Accounting and Reporting for OPEB is effective for the Reporting Year 2018 (this year!). OPEB, or post-employment benefits other than pension, includes benefits such as healthcare provided through a pension plan or separately (medical, dental, vision, hearing, etc.) and other benefits when provided separately from a pension plan, such as: life insurance, long-term care, disability, and more.

Spring will be here before you know it, and so will the annual report deadline for local governments whose fiscal year ends December 31, 2018. For those governments, annual reports are due May 30, 2019.

If you are a local government in Washington state, you may be aware of RCW 39.34.030, which allows governments to use other agencies' contracts to buy goods and services – also called “piggybacking.” But what you mi