HomeMy WebLinkAboutFS 2015-10-20 Item 2C - Update - 2014 Audit ReportCity of Tukwila
Jim Haggerton, Mayor
TO: Mayor Haggerton
Finance & Safety Committee
FROM: Peggy McCarthy, Finance Director
DATE: October 14, 2015
SUBJECT: 2014 Audit Report
ISSUE
Discuss the City's 2014 audit report issued by the Washington State Auditor's office.
BACKGROUND
The audit is comprised of three components as follows:
1. Financial — determines if the financial statements are reasonably stated and presented in
accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
2. Accountability— determines compliance with laws, regulations, contracts and grant
agreements, in general.
3. Federal — determines compliance with federal grant and other federal program regulations
in accordance with OMB Circular A -133
The City received a "clean" audit report for the financial and accountability portions of the audit.
However, the audit of two of the four selected federal grants resulted in findings that the City did
not have adequate internal controls to ensure compliance with federal suspension and debarment
requirements for Assistance to Firefighters grant and the Federal Transit Capital Investment grant.
Federal regulations prohibit the payment of federal monies to suspended or debarred contractors.
The federal government maintains an Excluded Parties List System, EPLS, to record entities that
have been suspended or debarred; grantees are required to refer to this list before paying
contractors with federal funds. For the Assistance to Firefighters grant and the Federal Transit
Capital Investment grant, physical evidence, such as a screen shot or print out of the EPLS, was
not retained in the grant files for the grant contractors Motorola and Puget Sound Energy,
respectively. Although neither of these contractors had been suspended or debarred, the State
Auditor considered the lack of physical evidence demonstrating the EPLS list checking to be a
material weakness in internal control and reported it as such. The City strongly disagrees with
this conclusion.
DISCUSSION
The City, as well as other cities in south King County and the greater Puget Sound, have voiced
concerns about changes in the State Auditor's office in the past two years. The quality of the
audits, the degree and timeliness of communication, a change in audit approach from
collaborative to more adversarial and a narrower interpretation of "material weakness" have all
become issues. The City of Tukwila has joined with other south King County cities, AWC and
certain other Puget Sound area cities in an attempt to resolve some of these issues. A meeting
was held with State Auditor representatives on September 16th and another meeting is scheduled
for mid - November.
11
INFORMATIONAL MEMO
Page 2
In addition to the City of Tukwila, the following Puget Sound area cities received audit findings
as a result of their 2014 audits.
• Bellevue
• Issaquah
• Auburn
• Covington
• Sumner
• Marysville
• Lynnwood
• Edmonds
• Bothell
• Arlington
• Mukilteo
• Mountlake Terrace
• Everett
• Seattle
King County and Spokane also received findings.
The audit report and other aspects of the audit will be discussed in more detail at the audit exit
conference on Thursday, October 22nd
RECOMMENDATION
For information only.
12 C:\ Users\ christy\ AppData\ Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Intemet Files\ Content .OutlooklH94XRZJM\InfoMemo template.dou