The Office of the Washington State Auditor found that 11 state agencies receiving federal COVID-19 aid money failed to follow grant rules or fully report spending.
The audit looked at money spent by state agencies between July 2022 to June 2023. The over 1,300-page report published on June 6, found 86 compliance violations by the agencies regarding spending rules equating to about $1.17 billion.
“That is the most we’ve ever written,” Sadie Armijo, director of State Audit and Special Investigations told Cascade PBS. “We had 70 [findings] last year and obviously it’s creeping up.”
During the fiscal year 2023 audited, Armijo said the state spent about $29 billion in federal aid. While below the pandemic high of $37 billion, agency spending of federal grant money is still above the $18 billion average before the pandemic.
In order to ensure public funds are spent properly, Armijo said that an audit is mandated by any agency that spends at least $750,000 in federal aid.
The audit concluded that the Department of Children, Youth and Families received the most findings of all the agencies. There were a total of 16 marks against DCYF valued at $473 million in questionable spending. Auditors found that DCYF failed to keep up with documentation showing how funds are spent on child care and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.
Auditors found the Department of Commerce out of compliance with its use of fiscal recovery funds and in the Emergency Rental Assistance program on 12 occasions. The Department fell short on adequately tracking subrecipient spending, following spending deadlines, and sending unauthorized advanced payments to subrecipient partners.
“We determined [Commerce] did not request and review adequate supporting documentation before paying subrecipients,” auditors wrote, “and it did not perform adequate fiscal monitoring to ensure that funds advanced to subrecipients were disbursed to eligible households and for allowable activities.”
The Department of Social and Health Services was also flagged over its failure to verify eligibility of aid recipients in the Immigrant Relief Fund.
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Five federal programs, which include the State Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Administrative Costs Grant and Veterans State Nursing Home Care, did not see any findings across this audit period.
Federal officials may request additional documentation from state agencies and, in rare instances, may request the money be paid back. Armijo notes that since the time of the audit, state agencies have made changes.