The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) established the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSLFRF) program, administered by the U.S. Treasury, Assistance Listing Number 21.027. One eligible use of these program funds allows governments to replace lost revenue in order to avoid cuts in their services.
Today the State Auditor's Office released an accountability audit of the City of Seattle, which included a review of the city's contract with Freedom Project and its subcontractor, King County Equity Now.
The audit determined the process the city used to award the contract was concerning. The audit resulted in a letter to city management, which outlined the issues auditors identified and their recommended improvements.
Today Gov. Inslee announced most state employees will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment, and he encouraged separately elected officials to adopt the same approach.
The Office of the Washington State Auditor will follow that proclamation. Everyone who works at SAO will be required to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18, with exceptions only for health and religious reasons.
OLYMPIA – 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.
While Washington was not alone in being targeted, the state Employment Security Department continues to struggle in answering customer questions, investigating suspected fraud and retrieving important data from its systems, the audits found.
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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.
The notifications will be sent by e-mail during the next two weeks to people who filed an unemployment insurance claim in 2020. The e-mail will contain information about identity theft protection and an individual code for 12 months of free credit monitoring and instructions on how to enroll and request assistance.
The information on this page was last updated: 03/12/2021 5:05 PM
The process is under way to notify people whose unemployment benefits claims information may have been affected by a data security breach of the Accellion file transfer service.
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.
This data includes personal information from about 1.6 million unemployment claims made in 2020, as well as other information from some state agencies and local governments.
Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy has been appointed to the executive committee of the National State Auditors Association. The nonpartisan group represents state auditors' interests in financial management and provides training and resources to professionals in the field.
“It's an honor to serve with my colleagues across the nation as we work to provide all Americans the government transparency and accountability they expect,” said McCarthy.
Today, the Office of the Washington State Auditor issued reports declaring three small local governments unauditable, bringing the total of such reports to seven for 2020. The State Auditor's Office (SAO) also notified local counties of these unauditable governments, a step toward halting their use of tax money, restricting payments for expenditures, and their possible dissolution under a new state law.