Auditor's Office tools provide view into government

By The Herald Editorial Board

Transparency is key to good government, and it’s the reason that each state has an auditor’s office to ensure that local governments are following the laws and rules of financial accountability.

But the intent of that transparency — trust that governments are providing the services expected and using taxpayer funds responsibly — requires that we look through the window into government operations that auditors provide.

Most of us only hear of the work of the Washington State Auditor’s Office through news reports when a local government, such as a city or school district has received a finding following a regular audit, typically a warning that certain procedures haven’t been followed with direction to correct the problem so an oversight doesn’t become a weakness that can allow fraud and embezzlement.

Last fiscal year, among the 2,724 audits completed by the state Auditor’s Office, it launched 90 deeper investigations that found 21 instances of fraud, identifying more than a half-million dollars in misappropriated funds, another $112,000 in questionable transactions and another $80,000 in other losses. A few years back, the office, during a regularly scheduled audit uncovered the misappropriation of nearly $7 million by the former finance director of the housing authority in Pierce County, who used lax internal controls to hide fraudulent transactions.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-auditors-office-tools-provide-view-into-government/