A state Auditor’s Office review of the Snohomish Health District found significant deficiencies in the internal controls in last year’s financial reporting, according to a recently released report.
The internal controls over accounting and financial statement preparation were inadequate to ensure accurate reporting, the report says.
Among the problems cited in the auditor’s office report was a year-end review performed by the business manger not being independently reviewed.
Although the problems identified in the auditor’s report led to understating the health district’s cash assets by nearly $15,000, all bookkeeping errors were subsequently corrected, the auditing team found.
None of the problems led to money being lost or misspent, said Adam Wilson, a spokesman for the state agency.
The type of problems found by the state’s auditing team are not uncommon, he said. The auditor’s office is satisfied by the steps taken by the public health agency to correct the problems, Wilson said.
The report includes a response from the Snohomish Health district, which outlined a plan to correct the problems identified by the auditor’s office. The health district said it agreed with the auditor’s office statements about problems in internal controls over its accounting and financial statements.
Katie Curtis, a health district spokeswoman, said that some of the problems arose due to lack of staff and resources. Also, several people changed positions within the agency, she said.
Some staff involved in the financial reporting were doing the work without any training, she said. “We’ve put in a training plan to get them up to date,” Curtis said. Staff now have more time to prepare and review financial statements. And they understand how things need to be reported on, she said.
“For us, it comes down to the staff having the resources and tools they need to do their jobs,” Curtis said.
Every year, public agencies have to give the auditor’s office a financial statement. “We use that to determine if we have an adequate picture of their financial situation,” Wilson said.
The main concern by the team reviewing the health district’s financial statement was that the controls over the preparation of the financial statement weren’t adequate to insure its accuracy,” he said. “They subsequently corrected the problems we identified.”
The auditor’s office will follow up on the issues when it conducts its next audit, he said
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
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