Let’s begin with information. The Washington State Auditor audits federal little one care funding in our state yearly. Previously 4 years, we’ve got not been in a position to audit it due to the state’s lack of report protecting.
It’s additionally a undeniable fact that till just lately, this work has not obtained a lot public consideration. A few of the causes for the latest spike in curiosity from the information media and members of the general public are distasteful, however extra accountability for day care spending in Washington is required.
Let me clarify.
We’re speaking about this now as a result of audits within the state of Minnesota did what audits are designed to do: They flagged gaps in oversight of public applications, and acceptable investigators stepped in.
Audits are accountability instruments; prison fees are in the realm of legislation enforcement. Simply final month, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace stated that billions of {dollars} meant for a wide range of public providers in Minnesota might have been stolen by fraud schemes.
These fees are the results of work that has gone on for years. Sadly, the information and want for accountability — in Minnesota and now in Washington — have been hijacked by problems with race that haven’t any place within the dialogue.
As Washingtonians, we all know accountability and prejudice are wholly incompatible.
Because the state auditor, I can let you know that my workforce of practically 500 works to offer impartial and fact-driven accountability throughout the state, each week of each month, producing 3,000 audits a yr. The Workplace of the Washington State Auditor has audited governments since our state’s founding in 1889.
In the present day, our audit work consists of auditing the federal program that subsidizes little one care in our state, the Little one Care and Growth Fund.
As our public studies confirmed, we had not been in a position to absolutely audit this system for the earlier 4 years. As a result of the Division of Kids, Youth and Households didn’t monitor its spending with a degree of traceability that complied with federal necessities, we had been unable to decide whether or not that cash was spent in line with federal guidelines.
As a end result, we questioned all the program’s spending for fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. In our most up-to-date State of Washington Single Audit, that meant questioning $416 million spent by the federal little one care program.
We query prices when an company doesn’t have satisfactory documentation to help its expenditures, or it has not complied with grant necessities. Doing so doesn’t essentially point out fraud.
We’ve produced a summary of the single audit, or you’ll be able to search for the discovering, 2024-056, within the full report. You’ll find these studies and all different audits we publish on our web site. I encourage everybody to learn them for yourselves — we’ve got a wealth of public info at sao.wa.gov, out there to everybody.
Nonetheless, after we are unable to audit a public entity’s accounts, whether or not it’s the smallest irrigation/drainage district or the most important state program, we can not ship the accountability the general public expects. We can not advance our imaginative and prescient of accelerating public belief in authorities.
In gentle of that, I’ve excellent news for accountability relating to federal little one care subsidies.
Shortly after taking workplace, Gov. Bob Ferguson and DCYF Secretary Tana Senn ensured a rise in accountability for the division’s spending. It’s a undeniable fact that, for the primary time in 5 years, we can conduct a full audit of the Little one Care and Growth Fund.
Due to that, this month we might — and did — guarantee Washingtonians {that a} full, impartial audit of little one care subsidies is underway.
We count on to publish that work in about three months. We might decide there are points nonetheless to be addressed within the state’s oversight of kid care funding. Once more, that doesn’t essentially imply the state has been defrauded. We’ll look forward to the information.
By submitting very important public providers to the scrutiny of impartial audits, we construct belief between the general public and their authorities.
That belief is important to the democratic beliefs we share as People of each background. And that belief should all the time be primarily based on the rock-solid basis of reality.
