Local governments

We at the State Auditor's Office extend our thanks to every local government that filed its fiscal year 2022 annual report on time! This year, about 87 percent of local governments met the annual filing deadline, proving once again that compliance, accountability and transparency matter in Washington state.

We've updated the infographic below to show which governments filed on time, which filed late, and which haven't filed yet. How does your county compare to the rest? The graphic still updates daily, so check back as often as you'd like.

This article was originally published in the special issue of the Digital Audit Connection for the 2023 Washington Association of School Business Officials conference. Read the full issue here.

When was the last time you looked at your finance team's vacation patterns? It may surprise you to learn that many frauds and other breaches of internal controls come to light only after employees go on vacation and other staff take over their tasks.

Meter reading is the critical first step in a utility's revenue collection process. Gathering accurate, complete meter data is essential not only for collecting the appropriate amount of revenue to operate the utility, but also for ensuring a positive customer experience and public image.

From accurate and prompt billing to well-designed collection procedures, accounts receivable requires a robust set of internal controls to ensure your government collects the money it is owed. A strong accounts receivable process can result in higher revenue for your government, while a weak process can lead to wasted staff time, accounting errors and lost revenue. When was the last time you took a close look at your accounts receivable?

Information the Office of the Washington State Auditor collects about rural counties' sales and use tax for fiscal year 2021 can be found in this Rural County and Sales Tax for Public Facilities Report – FY2021.

Spring is here and so is the annual report filing season. This year's deadline is May 30 for all governments with a Dec. 31 year-end.

We encourage you to submit your government's annual report by the deadline. Timely filing ensures local governments comply with state law, and it demonstrates our shared commitment to accountability and transparency in government.

Automated Clearing House (ACH) and other types of payment fraud are on the rise, and bad actors are using vendor master files to do it. It starts with a simple request to change a vendor's contact information, payment address or banking details, and ends it with thousands or even millions of dollars in public funds being redirected to fraudulent accounts.

A new year has begun, which means it's time for cash-basis governments to close out the last year and begin preparing their annual financial reports.

In 2022, just one new local government fell into unauditable status and three others were removed from the category, continuing progress toward accounting for the public finances of all of Washington's 2,300 local governments.

A new year-end report by the Office of the Washington State Auditor identified six local governments that failed to provide basic financial records and cooperate with an audit—meeting the definition of an unauditable government. Five of those governments were also deemed unauditable the previous year.