Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley
It’s too early to draw any conclusions about our new State Auditor, Troy Kelley, but audits released in the last week point to a continuation of his predecessor’s aggressive pursuit of government transparency and accountability.
The State Auditor’s Office released 46 new audits and found significant shortcomings in 7 of them. They highlighted the City of Montesano audit where as a result of shortcomings they found, ” the City allocated $193,881 in salary and benefit costs to its utility funds without documenting that amount was fair and equitable. Increased costs to City utilities may result in higher utility rates.”
“The City of Montesano’s situation serves as a reminder that cities can charge central service costs to utility funds, but the charge must be in proportion to the benefit received. State law severely restricts the extent to which utilities subsidize other functions of government.”
Montesano was not the only city open to criticism. Additional audits found that “By not retaining and adequateley training staff to be responsible for financial operations the City [of Granite Falls] cannot accurately monitor and report its financial information. …The city’s Current Expense Fund expenditures have exceeded revenues in each of the past four years. …In order to continue to provide services, the city has been allocating payroll expenditures from the Current Expense Fund to the restricted utility funds. These allocations are not based on actual time worked as required by state law.”
The City of Mossyrock got off lighter, with a finding that “the city does not have adequate internal controls over cash-receipting and utility billing, increasing the risk that undetected errors or losses could occur.”
Two counties were also found to have minor shortcomings. Whitman failed to properly implement federal requirements under the prevailing wage laws, while Kitsap internal controls were inadequate particularly at the Sheriff’s Office.
For more details go to http://portal.sao.wa.gov/SubscriptionServices/RecentAuditReportSubscriptions.aspx?CID=8247 .
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