State audit finds weak procurement and subrecipient monitoring for Edmonds ARPA spending

The Washington State Auditor's Office told the Edmonds City Council at an exit conference that the city lacked adequate internal controls and documentation for certain procurement decisions and for follow-up monitoring of subrecipients paid with Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (the federal ARPA program).

The finding, included in the auditors' published report, covered two areas: procurement and subrecipient monitoring. Auditors said the city used allowable alternative procurement methods but did not retain documentation supporting a sole-source determination, and did not retain the bid documentation used by an out-of-state cooperative that supplied police vehicles.

Erica (auditor, State Auditor's Office) said, "we are issuing an unmodified opinion on the city's compliance with the requirements that are applicable to the major program we audited this year," and then described the separate audit finding for internal…