Adams County reviews accountability audit findings

RITZVILLE — Assistant Audit Manager for Washington’s State Auditor’s Office Weston Fink and Assistant State Auditor Brittany Benning met with the Adams County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday for the exit interview of their accountability audit covering Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022.

“In brief, the report describes the overall results and conclusions for the areas we examined,” Fink said. “In those selected areas, county operations complied in all material respects with applicable state laws and regulations. Your policies provided adequate controls over safeguarding public resources.”

Fink said there were only minor items of concern during the audit.

“While we have a few extra items, which we will discuss later, I want to emphasize that there were no management letters, there were no findings, there were no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses that we identified during the course for audit,” he said. “So the few things we'll discuss here momentarily are of a minor nature. So I want to, I guess say congratulations in that regard. It was still a very clean audit.”

The audit looked at the county’s cash receipting, compliance with state grants, self-insurance for unemployment, tracking and monitoring of theft-sensitive items, accounts payable and general disbursements of funds, public meetings and the county’s financial status, Fink said. Only a few issues were raised. 

“Again, these are our lowest level of reporting, they are relatively minor issues and they don't get included in the audit report,” Fink said. “They are not a significant deficiency or finding. They are communicated and that's about that. They involve control or compliance issues that are insignificant or have an immaterial effect.”

Fink outlined the most serious of the minor concerns, a potential gifting of public funds to Adams County Sheriff’s Department employees. 

“There was a hotline submission from a citizen and during that process, it involved general disbursements for the purchase of several guns that were given during a Christmas meeting worth approximately $1,600,” Fink said. “During that process, we spoke with Heidi Hunt and obtained invoices for that matter and tried to obtain the county's official recognition policy for what does or doesn't meet the allowability criteria for gifts to employees. However, the county does not have an official recognition policy when it comes to gifts of public funds.”

Fink said the auditors had to make their own determination on the issue.

“From our perspective, when that transfer occurred, that did constitute a gift of public funds,” Fink said. “However, this is more of an indication of something countywide. There is no official recognition policy for the county when it comes to matters like this. So our first recommendation is that the county should implement some sort of policy or procedure that dictates what is and isn't allowable. Secondly, we're not saying that the county needs to recoup any of these funds, we're just simply saying that the county should work with your own legal counsel to make that determination and see if there is any sort of requirement.”

Sheriff Dale Wagner commented on the purchase of the guns, clarifying that the money for the guns was donated to the sheriff’s department and earmarked for their purchase as awards for good work from citizens to employees.

“I know they're saying they're public funds because they went in there, but I want to make sure it's clarified that those were donation dollars. It wasn't budgeted dollars by the county, number one,” Wagner said. “Number two, these are not county firearms, the monies of those donations went to purchase of those awards in the form of a firearm … I just want to make sure that that's very clear because in his document it doesn't read that way. It says that we took $1,600 worth of guns and handed them over to somebody. That's not what occurred here. It's $1,600 of donated dollars for the purpose of these (awards) and these awards were given by the public for the people within the office.”

County Prosecutor Randy Flyckt asked if anyone from the state auditor’s office spoke with Wagner or his staff, and Wagner said they did not. 

Fink then asked if the commissioners would like him to address Wagner’s comment or carry on with the presentation and Commissioner Dan Blankenship told him to carry on.

Benning discussed the remaining exit items.

“During our review of the Schedule 15, which is the schedule that all state grants are reported on, one of the grants was overstated by $21,629,” Benning said. “From what we understood, all the departments submit all the information to the auditor's office and then this information is put onto the Schedule 15. So, we just recommend the county strengthen internal controls to ensure the departments provide accurate information to the auditor to ensure accurate reporting.”

Benning discussed other minor documentation errors before Fink wrapped up the presentation. The full accountability audit can be found on the State Auditor’s Office website. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.