New phone numbers for the Office of the Washington State Auditor
January 22, 2020Beginning in February, several phone numbers for the Office of the Washington State Auditor will change.
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Change Management Lesson 3: Improvement requires desire to change
January 21, 2020How many of us have been shaped by a work culture that lives by an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule? But what does that really mean?
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Some governments move off unauditable list
January 21, 2020In response to legislative interest in addressing unauditable governments, the State Auditor’s Office recently updated the status of this small group of noncompliant districts.
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Change Management Lesson 2: Building Awareness of the Change to Come
January 14, 2020In our Lesson 1 post, we introduced change management as a strategy to implement successful process improvement initiatives. In this installment, we will introduce the ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) change management model. This is a five-stage approach to help organizations manage the people side of change. Today, we will focus on Awareness.
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Visit SAO during our 1-day Performance Audit Workshop!
January 10, 2020Are you, or someone you know, currently enrolled in a college degree program? Interested in learning about an exciting career where you can help improve government services? Well, you’re in luck!
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Change Management Lesson 1: How to Get Started
January 7, 2020Government staff often ask where to start when they seek to improve a process like permits, asset management, approval queues and so on.
It’s hard to know what actions to take without looking at why you are where you are today, and the mindset of the people who will have to make the change happen.
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State Auditor’s Office uncovers $7 million misappropriation
December 16, 2019Today, the Office of the Washington State Auditor released its report on a major fraud investigation involving the Pierce County Housing Authority. The State Auditor’s Office investigation found nearly $7 million in misappropriated public funds, which is the largest case of its kind on record for a Washington local government.
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Newest newsletter focuses on school issues
November 21, 2019From time to time, the State Auditor’s Office compiles the articles we post on this blog into our Audit Connection print newsletter, which we distribute at meetings and conferences. Recently, we put together our first print newsletter aimed solely at education professionals.
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Are you ready for lease accounting?
November 19, 2019Accounting and reporting standards and guidance for leases are changing for both GAAP and cash basis local governments, effective for fiscal years ending December 31, 2020, and after. Although you won’t be preparing your financial statements and notes until early 2021, those first lease payments under the new standard will begin to flow in January 2020. Will you be ready?
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Using data to visualize the world of fire protection districts
November 14, 2019As a follow up to our #Gov101 series on fire districts, let’s take a look at what we can learn about these governments using the Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT)!
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