Review: Corrections center broke rules, inflated budget

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — An internal review found that a Washington state corrections facility inflated budget projections and violated state purchasing guidelines.

A review of Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a minimum-security facility about 11 miles southwest of Olympia, says about $145,000 of the facility’s purchases since July 2016 were made outside of state guidelines.

The review says failure to follow those guidelines could “severely compromise” the agency’s operations.

The review also found the facility inflated some of its projected expenditures. In budget documents, the excess money in those inflated numbers was referred to as “sprinkles,” in an attempt to “hide/tuck money away to then purchase goods without the proper approvals.”

Cedar Creek Superintendent Douglas Cole is the subject of an ongoing ethics investigation.