Washington State Auditor

A Washington state employee misappropriated nearly $900,000 through fraudulent credit card purchases, the Office of the Washington State Auditor found in a fraud report released in early July 2024. It is the largest internal misappropriation in a state agency in at least the last 15 years.The report...

Civil asset forfeiture is a legal tool that allows police agencies to seize and forfeit (retain) property believed to be involved in or the proceeds of a crime. While property owners may file a claim to recover it, a performance audit in Washington found police agencies retained up to 90 percent of...

A look at how Washington state managed public money in 2023

In our Financial Statements and Federal Single Audit, we identified several state departments, including the Washington state Office of Management, Department of Commerce, and the Department of Social and Health Services did not have adequate internal controls over the Coronavirus Relief Fund and...

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...

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...

The novel coronavirus quickly became a global pandemic in 2020. In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act to help provide support for those affected by the pandemic. Washington’s Employment Security Department administers the state’s unemployment compensation program. From early in the pandemic...

This report contains the results of our investigation of the illegitimate unemployment claims and payments at the Department from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020. The purpose of our investigation was to determine if a misappropriation had occurred and to provide the Department with...

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...

On October 27, 2020, the Department notified our Office regarding a potential loss of public funds, as required by state law (RCW 43.09.185). Our investigation determined a misappropriation of unemployment insurance benefit funds occurred at the Department, totaling $315,282, and that the Department...