“In eight of the last nine audits, we reported internal control weaknesses in how the District accounts for its payroll expenditures. As evidenced by the results of this year’s audit, the District continues to inaccurately account for payroll expenditures.” So opened the most recent audit of Seattle School District No. 1, and from there it only got worse. Not only were (1) salary controls inadequate but so were (2) vehicle fleet purchase and use practices, (3) asset property inventory controls, and (4) maintenance equipment controls. Finally, problems identified in previous audits were found to only be partially corrected.

The City of Brewster in Okanogan County also came in for strong criticism in another audit from the State Auditor’s Office. “During our previous audits, we reported numerous issues regarding internal controls over financial accounting and reporting to City management. In the current audit, we found these weaknesses continue.” As a result, “We found the Finance Director misappropriated $29,264 from the City from 2000 through 2011. The case has been referred to law enforcement and the Finance Director no longer is employed with the City.”

In another of the 31 state audits released on Monday, Public Utility District No. 1 of Pend Oreille County was found to have significant deficiencies.

For further details on any of these audits see http://portal.sao.wa.gov/SubscriptionServices/RecentAuditReportSubscriptions.aspx?CID=8247 .

Your support matters.

Public service journalism is important today as ever. If you get something from our coverage, please consider making a donation to support our work. Thanks for reading our stuff.