Washington's governments encountered special audit circumstances this year when it came to preparing the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). School districts were no different—and many of
you found yourselves facing a federal audit for the first time because the funding you received related
to the COVID-19 pandemic met or exceeded the federal government's threshold to require an audit.
We're firing up our #Gov101 series again! This time, we're featuring public utility districts, also known as PUDs.
For the next few weeks, we'll tell you all about these special purpose districts: how they're governed, how they get and spend public dollars, and how you can participate at your local PUD.
Our first video covers the types of services Washington's 28 PUDs provide to their communities and their governing structure.
We're excited to announce the release of new features in our Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT)! You'll now have access to more details about local governments' debt and liabilities and a direct link to helpful FIT resources. We've also launched our new live annual filing submission tracker and made several other enhancements for a better user experience.
Imagine you are planning an expensive Hawaiian vacation—your first in two years. One of the first things you check is whether any of the costs are refundable if something were to prevent you from going. When you learn you could lose your deposit if you pull out of the trip, you plan to buy trip insurance just to be safe. In other words, you've identified a risk and found a way to mitigate it.
You've heard the old adage that good food comes from quality ingredients. The same could be said about your government's annual report: it's only as good as the data that goes into it. As you prepare to file your annual report this year, remember that there are many consumers of your financial data and its accuracy is important.
Do you have cash handling responsibilities in your organization? A new online, on-demand training from the Center for Government Innovation will help you design good internal controls and understand common cash receipting fraud schemes. You'll also learn how to develop cash handling best practices and the steps you should take if your organization experiences or suspects fraud.
Published: March 31, 2022
Before hiring a contractor to work on your home, it's wise to make sure they are licensed, bonded and insured. It helps to protect you if the contractor doesn't complete work properly, if there are any damages, or if workers are injured while at your home. For governments, it's not just wise—it's required by law.
As you enter into new federal award agreements this year, keep in mind they will likely have reporting requirements. We first ran this article in March 2022, but due to its importance, we're republishing it as a reminder.
Almost every federal program award requires recipients to file reports, which could include financial, performance and other special purpose reporting. Awarding agencies rely on these reports to ensure recipients used federal funds to achieve program objectives, which helps them make future funding decisions.
Published: March 16, 2022
It's not uncommon for a government to have multiple bank or investment accounts with different staff or departments reconciling them. That's okay, but keep in mind there can be risks when different people are involved with reconciling several accounts.
This weekend marks the start of daylight saving time, and we all know the drill: Change your clocks and the batteries in your smoke alarms. But how often are you testing your government's backup file system? With the rapid rise in phishing and ransomware schemes, the biannual time change can also serve as a handy reminder to perform this critical task.