Reports

Based on our risk assessment for the years ended June 30, 2020, 2019 and 2018, the areas examined were those representing the highest risk of fraud, loss, abuse, or noncompliance. We examined the following areas during this audit period. Accounts payable – general disbursements and electronic funds transfers, Payroll – gross wages and overtime, Paid family and medical leave – billing and compliance with eligibility, Procurement – information technology contracts and change orders.

Seattle – A Washington tech executive pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and money laundering in connection with his scheme to obtain over $5.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and laundering the proceeds, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman for the Western District of Washington.

Seattle - A Redmond, Washington, man who held himself out as a biotech expert was arrested today on a federal warrant charging him with introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.

Seattle — A respiratory therapist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Seattle was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three months in prison and nine months of home confinement for theft of government property, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.

State management is responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining internal controls to ensure the financial statements are fairly presented, and to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and to prevent and detect fraud. We identified deficiencies in internal controls at the Employment Security Department (ESD) that adversely affected the State’s ability to prevent and detect fraud.

In accordance with Revised Code of Washington 43.88.027, the Office of Financial Management has prepared this Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) of the state of Washington for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.

The objective of the audit was to determine whether the use of Public Health Emergency Leave aligned with Port policy. In order to achieve this objective, Internal Audit utilized a risk-based approach, selected a sample of individuals who took Public Health Emergency Leave.

This report is the second in a series of savings-focused best practice reviews to be conducted by the Auditor’s Office. We conducted this analysis to illustrate some of the potential furlough options policymakers have when making decisions about how to reduce the County’s costs. Individual departments could also implement these types of furlough structures for their employees. We are not making recommendations at this time.

This report describes the overall results and conclusions for the areas we examined related to the Unemployment Tax and Benefits (UTAB) system’s application and general information technology (IT) controls. In most of the areas we examined, controls were not adequately designed and implemented to provide reasonable assurance of complete, accurate, secure and available data.

This report is a review of risks and possible mitigation strategies related to remote work decisions. The office has not yet completed its assessment of the County’s transitions to remote work and are not yet making recommendations because of the evolving nature of these decisions. However, when the office’s assessment is complete, it will use the information in this document as a starting point for making recommendations in the future.