King County DCHS Seeks to Put Fraud Concerns to Bed with New Protocol

The King County Office of the Ombuds released a report earlier in May that takes a deeper look at a 2025 audit performed on a narrow range of contracts overseen by the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS). This report comes after the King County Auditor’s Office said that DCHS has made “significant progress” on audit recommendations to increase accountability and oversight.

The ombuds will refer observations from the new report that indicate “possible fraud, forgery, or attempted theft of funds” to law enforcement and send the report to the Washington State Auditor’s Office for an additional layer of review.

However, while the review process has taken about a year and a half so far, neither the original audit nor the ombuds’ report have proven that any fraud has taken place – although several vendors failed to fulfill contractual obligations to document their activities.

The original audit looked at 36 contracts from four youth programs, including Restorative Community Pathways, within DCHS’s wide portfolio of programs and services. Three of the four programs receive funding from the Best Starts for Kids levy. The programs selected primarily support Black and brown youth in underserved communities by contracting with small community-based organizations. Of the 36 contracts reviewed, 19 contracts were flagged for potential issues.

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