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State auditors report $428,000 vendor-payment loss; city staff outline immediate reforms
Summary
The Washington State Auditor's Office reported an accountability finding that inadequate controls over vendor payment changes contributed to a $428,000 loss; city staff said they notified law enforcement and the state auditor, engaged a private accounting firm and implemented supervisory reviews and new fraud-detection software.
The Washington State Auditor's Office presented the City of Mercer Island's fiscal-year 2024 exit conference on Feb. 3, reporting an accountability finding that inadequate internal controls over vendor payment changes contributed to a loss of $428,000 in public funds.
Auditor summary: Kai Nguyen, audit lead, said the accountability audit found that the city lacked a policy requiring sufficient verification when vendor information is changed and did not centralize requests for vendor-payment changes. "We determined that there is inadequate internal controls over the city's vendor payments that contributed to a loss of $428,000 of public funds," Nguyen said.
Scope and opinion: auditors told the council they performed an accountability audit (covering…
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