The Audit Connection Blog
Visualizing Washington's Unemployment Benefit Programs in 2020
This presentation tells the story of Washington's Unemployment Insurance program during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, from the first American coronavirus patient diagnosed January 21 through the end of the year. ... CONTINUE READING
Vulnerabilities in federal law, gaps in state fraud detection led to losses in unemployment insurance program, audits find
Emergency federal unemployment programs launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic included provisions that opened state unemployment benefits to fraud, the Office of the Washington State Auditor found in three audits released today. ... CONTINUE READING
Spring 2021 newsletter now available
We curated this latest issue of our regular newsletter to make it easy to find key information from this blog, all in one place! Please download or share with colleagues who might find it valuable. ... CONTINUE READING
Cash Basis BARS, PEBB participating governments likely have an Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) liability to report on their Schedule 09
The most common OPEB benefit provided by some local governments is through the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) plan. This plan provides OPEB benefits through implicit and explicit rate subsidies for retirees. Even though retirees pay 100 percent of their premiums, that payment is not the full cost of the benefits. Retirees pay less because participating employers like you pay a little extra. That little extra is OPEB. ... CONTINUE READING
FIT Data Stories: Sales tax
Sales tax represents about a quarter of all city and town revenues, but did you know that three Washington cities or towns derive more than 50 percent of their total revenues from sales tax? Can you guess which ones and why? Unlock the answers to these questions and a world of other sales tax data stories by opening our interactive infographic based on data from the Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT). ... CONTINUE READING
Countdown to the annual report filing date has begun!
The countdown to the May 30th annual report filing date has begun. Interested in the progress local governments are making to meet this reporting deadline? Check out our interactive infographic to see how local governments across the state are doing. ... CONTINUE READING
Update on State Auditor’s Office efforts regarding data security incident
OLYMPIA – This week the Office of the Washington State Auditor will begin notifying people whose unemployment benefits claims information may have been affected by a security breach of the Accellion file transfer service. ... CONTINUE READING
Summary infographic of Washington's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
Each year, as required by law, the state publishes its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) to provide information on the state’s financial position. To make this important information accessible to the broadest possible audience, the State Auditor’s Office prepares this CAFR summary to provide a snapshot of the state’s financial position, including revenues and expenditures, cash balances and debt. ... CONTINUE READING
Frequently asked questions regarding a data breach at SAO’s third-party service provider
The Office of the Washington State Auditor uses a third-party service provider, Accellion, to transmit data files in our audits. Accellion had a security incident in December, and announced it in January. On Monday, Feb. 1, Auditor Pat McCarthy announced that among other items, the information from 1.6 million unemployment claims might have been accessed by an unauthorized user. The investigation is ongoing. Here are some questons and answers about this breach. ... CONTINUE READING
Third-party service provider’s security incident compromised Washingtonians’ personal information
A security incident involving a third-party provider of hosted software services, which was used by the Office of the Washington State Auditor, might have exposed sensitive data belonging to Washingtonians. ... CONTINUE READING