The Office of the Washington State Auditor's new performance audit – I-1163: Addressing testing barriers for home care aides – found that home care aides face several barriers to becoming certified, including access to fewer tests sites and long testing delays.
Employees and projects from the Office of the Washington State Auditor (SAO) were recently honored at the annual conference of the National State Auditors Association (NSAA) in Atlanta, Georgia.
Scott DeViney, who serves as Assistant Director of Quality Assurance at SAO, was honored with a President's Award for his contributions to NSAA's 2021 Peer Review Training Taskforce. With a small group of volunteers from other state audit offices, DeViney developed a series of training videos on the peer review process.
Today, the Office of the Washington State Auditor released a legislatively-mandated performance audit of ballot rejection in 10 Washington State counties during the 2020 general election.
In the counties reviewed, election officials followed the law in determining whether to reject a ballot. However, the likelihood that a voter's ballot will be rejected varied greatly by county. And ballots cast by some demographic groups – including younger voters, male voters, and those belonging to certain racial and ethnic groups – have higher rejection rates than others.
Washington's state and local governments possess countless IT systems that provide critical government services and handle vital and sometimes very personal data. The public expects government to do all it can to ensure that these systems are secure so critical services can be delivered and data stored in those systems is not lost, stolen or damaged.
The State Auditor's Office plays a unique role in keeping an independent eye on government IT security. We work with state and local governments to help improve their cybersecurity programs through audits and outreach activities.
SAO's Performance Audit team has more than 30 staff members who combine their unique professional and educational backgrounds to develop innovative approaches to helping Washington's government programs become more efficient and effective. Since 2005, our Performance Audit team has examined a variety of issues like workplace culture, student behavioral health prevention and intervention, bail practices, and IT security.
Today the Office of the Washington State Auditor released a first-of-its-kind performance audit in the state: an in-depth review of a large state agency's workplace culture.
The audit of the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) is also one of the first of its kind in the nation to use the tools of government performance auditing to examine how work environment affects an agency's ability to fulfill its mission.
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.
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.
By our Performance Audit team
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
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