Governments are vulnerable to cybersecurity breeches. In this way, they don’t vary much from private-sector businesses, whose sometimes spectacular cybersecurity failings grab headlines. So, as a government with limited resources, how do you prepare for the inevitability of some bad actor trying to access sensitive information?
… CONTINUE READING →
Fraudulent disbursements are the most common form of asset misappropriation. This type of disbursement occurs when an employee uses their position to make payment for an inappropriate purpose. They are on-book fraud schemes, which means that money in the form of checks leaves the entity fraudulently, but is recorded on the books and leaves an audit trail. In this way, entities can become victims of fraud, even when no cash is involved.
… CONTINUE READING →
Mark your calendars – we will be offering our Budgeting, Accounting, and Reporting System (BARS) Roundtables again this fall. The Roundtables are free, three-hour sessions that are open to all local governments.
… CONTINUE READING →
Today marks the beginning of October, a month dedicated to the awareness of cybersecurity—a distinction bestowed to October way back in 2003. Here in 2018, 2003 seems light-years away—a dim and distant past when our cybersecurity concerns centered around malicious actors gaining access to our MySpace accounts or Nigerian princes conning us out of our bank account information from the seemingly secure space of a Yahoo email account. How quaint those concerns seem against the undermining of American democracy, a target of some of today’s cybercriminals.
… CONTINUE READING →
Our Office is dedicated to helping local and state governments across Washington avoid the potentially devastating effects of cybersecurity attacks. Much of the public data governments hold is sensitive in nature, and needs to be carefully guarded.
… CONTINUE READING →
Our Office is committed to helping governments improve their operations. One way the Auditor’s Office does that is by leading Lean workshops for governments that ask for help improving a process. However, we also look for ways to improve our own Office as well, and we want to share the results of our process improvement efforts during 2017.
… CONTINUE READING →
Last fall, we posted an article strongly encouraging governments to start evaluating activities that might be classified as fiduciary activities under the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB) recently issued Statement No. 84. The changes to fiduciary activity reporting are right around the corner – effective for reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018 – and affect not only governments that report under generally accepted accounting principles, but those that report using the cash-basis accounting model as well.
… CONTINUE READING →
We have learned that not all banking institutions are providing a detailed breakout of cash and checks on bank validated deposit slips. If your banking records do not contain the detailed cash/check composition of your deposit, you will want to take corrective action as soon as possible.
… CONTINUE READING →
As you may have seen in Auditor Pat McCarthy’s letter Monday, the State Auditor’s Office is adjusting the hourly local audit billing rate in 2019. For further information, here are some background facts on the Office’s rates, plans and budget.
… CONTINUE READING →
The Benton-Franklin Health District building is a clean, modern facility, shining brightly from its location tucked behind a shopping center and other businesses. The waiting room is spacious, and the interior brims with helpful pamphlets about preventing common diseases, staying healthy and knowing when to visit your doctor. The facility is designed to put clients at ease as they wait for their appointments. Health District employees care about their clients and have designed their space around their clients’ comfort.
… CONTINUE READING →
