{"database": "mytown-research", "table": "audit_findings", "rows": [[17, "wa-sao", "1020910", "fraud-investigation", 4, "WA", "City of Seattle", "City/Town", "0433", "5363000", "geoid_place", "Washington State Auditor's Office", "Fraud investigation \u2014 City of Seattle", "Fraud", 2015, "2009-01-01", "2015-11-30", "2018-05-31", "misappropriation", "fraud_investigation", null, null, "Investigation Summary On April 24, 2017, the Director of Citywide Accounting and Payroll notified our Office regarding a potential loss of public funds as state law requires. The City contracted with an investigative firm and provided the City a summary report of its investigation. We reviewed the i", "Investigation Summary \nOn April 24, 2017, the Director of Citywide Accounting and Payroll notified our Office \nregarding a potential loss of public funds as state law requires. \nThe City contracted with an investigative firm and provided the City a summary report of its \ninvestigation. We reviewed the investigative firm\u2019s investigation report and agree with its \nconclusions. The investigation determined that funds collected by the City between January 2009 \nand November 2015 for the employee giving and volunteer program were not deposited or \nturned over to the charities, resulting in questionable activity totaling $20,978. \nBackground and Investigation Results \nThe City, located in King County, operates on an annual budget of about $5.1 billion including \n$1.1 billion for the general fund. The City has implemented an employee giving and volunteer \nprogram, Seattle Shares, that facilitates employee philanthropy by offering ways for employees \nto give to charities. The most common method that employees use to contribute is through \npayroll deductions; employees also may give one-time gifts of cash or checks during department \nfundraising events. \nThe Seattle Shares Program Coordinator started with the City in March 2008. Her job duties \nincluded entering donor information into the Human Resources Information System\u2019s payroll \ndatabase (EV5), answering customer questions and presenting funds for deposit to the Treasury \nDepartment. Employees also had the option to submit their charitable donations directly t o the \nTreasury Department. A separate employee handled any donations made through a payroll \ndeduction. \nOn November 9, 2016, while the Program Coordinator was on extended paid leave, two city \nemployees discovered boxes at the Program Coordinator \u2019s workspace that contained over \n$15,000 in cash and checks along with donation forms indicating the funds were charitable \ncontributions. The boxes contained checks dating from 2009 to 2014. The Seattle Department of \nHuman Resources then initiated a personnel investigation with the help of an investigative firm. \nThe investigative firm\u2019s investigation included: \n\u2022 A review of the funds and documentation discovered in the workspace of the Program \nCoordinator \n\u2022 A review of the charity database and deposit history \n\u2022 A determinat ion of whether the loss was due to the Program Coordinator\u2019s failure to \nperform her job duties or whether the loss was due to inadequate policies and procedures. \n \n \nWashington State Auditor\u2019s Office Page 4 \nAdditionally, the investigation included interview s with several City employees, including the \nProgram Coordinator. During the investigative firm\u2019s interview with the Program Coordinator on \nDecember 6, 2016, she delivered an additional $4,500 of undeposited funds from her residence. \nOf the $4,500, all but $55 was in cash. According to the Program Coordinator, part of the reason \nfor not depositing the funds was the enormity of her workload in the 2015 fall Seattle Shares \nevent. \nThe results of the investigat ion concluded the total known employee donations that the Program \nCoordinator failed to deposit or turn over to the intended charities was $20,476. Of that amount, \n$15,976 in cash , coins, and checks were discovered in a cabinet at the Program Coordinator \nworkspace and $4,500 was produced during her interview. The investigative firm was able to \nidentify the intended charities for all but $1,321 of the $20,476. The investigative firm further \nidentified events for which donations were reportedly raised but not deposited, in th e amount of \n$502. \nControl Weaknesses \nInternal controls at the City were not adequate to safeguard funds held in trust by the City. We \nfound the following weaknesses allowed the misappropriation to occur: \n\u2022 Duties were not segregated: The Program Coordinator handled all aspects of the cash \nreceipting process. \n\u2022 The City did not perform an independent reconciliation of donations to the payroll \ndatabase or bank statements to ensure all money received was recorded and deposited. \nRecommendation s \nWe recommend the City strengthen internal controls over cash receipts to ensure adequate \noversight and monitoring to safeguard funds held in trust by the City and compliance with City \npolicies. \nWe also recommend the City seek recovery of the undeposited $502 and related investigation \ncosts of $1,735 from the former Seattle Shares Program Coordinator and/or the City\u2019s insurance \nbonding company, as appropriate. Any compromise or settlement of this claim by the City must \nbe approved in writing by the Attorney General and State Audito r as directed by state law \n(RCW 43.09.260). Assistant Attorney General Matthew Kernutt is the contact person for the \nAttorney General\u2019s Office and can be reached at (360) 586- 0740 or MattK1@atg.wa.gov. The \ncontact for the State Auditor\u2019s Office is Sadie Armijo , Assistant Director of Local Audit , who \ncan be reached at (360) 902-0362 or Sadie.Armijo@sao.wa.gov. \n \n \n \n \nWashington State Auditor\u2019s Office Page 5 \nCity\u2019s Response \nThe City of Seattle appreciates the State Auditor\u2019s Office recommendation on this matter. The \nCity understands that inadequate controls exist that allowed this type of misappropriation. The \nCity has taken steps to correct their procedures. This is awaiting a review by the Citywide \nAccounting Division\u2019s Compliance Manager. \n \nState Auditor\u2019s Office Remarks \nWe thank City officials and personnel for their assistance and cooperation during the \ninvestigation. \n \n \n \nWashington State Auditor\u2019s Office Page 6 \nABOUT THE STATE A UDITOR\u2019S OFFICE \nThe State Auditor's Office is established in the state's Constitution and is part of the executive \nbranch of state government. The State Auditor is elected by the citizens of Washington and \nserves four-year terms. \nWe work with our audit clients and citizens to achieve our vision of government that works for \ncitizens, by helping governments work better, cost less, deliver higher value, and earn greater \npublic trust. \nIn fulfilling our mission to hold state and local governments accountable for the use of publ ic \nresources, we also hold ourselves accountable by continually improving our audit quality and \noperational efficiency and developing highly engaged and committed employees. \nAs an elected agency, the State Auditor's Office has the independence necessary to objectively \nperform audits and investigations. Our audits are designed to comply with professional standards \nas well as to satisfy the requirements of federal, state, and local laws. \nOur audits look at financial information and compliance with state, fede ral and local laws on the \npart of all local governments, including schools, and all state agencies, including institutions of \nhigher education. In addition, we conduct performance audits of state agencies and local \ngovernments as well as fraud, state whistleblower and citizen hotline\n investigations. \nThe results of our work are widely distributed through a variety of reports, which are available \non our website and through our free, electronic subscription service. \nWe take our role as partners in accountability seriously, and provide training and technical \nassistance to governments, and have an extensive quality assurance program. \nContact information for the State Auditor\u2019s Office \nPublic Records requests PublicRecords@sao.wa.gov \nMain telephone (360) 902-0370 \nToll-free Citizen Hotline (866) 902-3900 \nWebsite www.sao.wa.gov", "https://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch/Home/ViewReportFile?arn=1020910&isFinding=false&sp=false", "2026-07-30 13:24:54"]], "columns": ["rowid", "source", "report_number", "finding_number", "muni_id", "state", "entity_name", "entity_type", "entity_ext_id", "place_geoid", "match_method", "auditor", "report_title", "audit_type", "fiscal_year", "period_start", "period_end", "published_date", "finding_category", "severity", "questioned_cost", "cost_basis", "finding_title", "finding_text", "report_url", "fetched_at"], "primary_keys": ["rowid"], "primary_key_values": ["17"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 16.17257299949415, "source": "MyTown", "source_url": "https://mytown.theboringparts.com", "license": "CC BY 4.0", "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"}