Klickitat County has earned high marks from the Washington State Auditor's Office in its final review of the county's 2001 financial records.
The county had no "findings" in 2001, which means there were no serious inadequacies or errors in the way the county conducts its financial dealings.
"We didn't have any findings this year. I'm very pleased with it and we will continue to do better," said Klickitat County Auditor Diana Housden.
Records kept by the Washington State Auditor's Office also showed the county with one of the state's cleanest audit histories since 1996. Klickitat County is one of only eight of the 39 counties in the state that has had one or zero findings in that six-year period.
The county's audit came in two parts this year, with the first part detailing how the county has handled money from the federal government. Although a spokesperson for the State Auditor's Office at first raised concerns about the county's failure to provide a "statement of cash flows" in a preliminary (Sept. 27) report, those concerns have apparently been allayed in the final audit.
Housden said the State Auditor's Office had earlier asked for an expanded cash flow statement during the 2001 audit period, and the county did not have sufficient time to provide the additional information.
"The cash flow report has always been provided for equipment replacement and repair," explained Housden. "This year, the state wanted cash flow for all funds countywide. That's a departure in our normal method of handling it. This year they asked for it, but it isn't normally something we've been doing due to the amount of work it requires."
A statement released by the Klickitat County Board of Commissioners backed Housden's explanation.
"The audit report ... indicates a `qualified opinion' by the State Auditor due to some reports being missing that are required by `generally accepted accounting principles' ... These reports are commonly missing for small counties as the cost to prepare them does not warrant the benefits," read an Oct. 16 statement from the Board of County Commissioners. "If these reports were essential, the State Auditor would have issued a finding and/or required the county to prepare the reports prior to completing their audit."
County Commissioner Ray Thayer said the board was "very happy" with the final State Auditor's report.
"Of particular interest to me was the attached sheets we got from the state showing the findings for all the counties since 1996," Thayer said. "Interestingly, little old Klickitat County had one finding since 1996, and big ol' King County had 42 findings. And I'm not criticizing, but I look at Skamania County with five findings, and some other nearby counties with three or four. I don't feel we're doing all that badly."
Housden pointed out that the missing information was not critical.
"It's not a significant impairment to the annual report. I talked to the State Auditor's Office on that," Housden said. "It takes time to gather, and we were not expecting it."
Thayer concurred.
"It wasn't a big deal," he said. "Lots of counties do this just the way we did. We usually get things taken care of by the time they come back next year. We always have little issues that we correct or attempt to correct."
Housden said Klickitat County will be in the process of making the transition to a more detailed way of accounting for next year. She added that all the counties in the state are being required to go to the new accounting guidelines by 2004.
The last "finding" from the State Auditor's Office was in the county's 2000 audit. The state declared that a "gifting of public funds occurred in granting a loan to the Alderdale Water Association and in providing funds for a water system study for the Husum area."
However, that finding was subsequently resolved, and there has been no evidence of gifting of funds since then.
Thayer noted that the loan to the Alderdale water system has been taken care of to the state's satisfaction.
"It's a loan and is to be paid back," Thayer explained.
Thayer added that he wondered why the county was singled out for the water study issue in the first place.
"Commissioners attend the exit interview [with the State Auditors]," Thayer explained. "I told them, the thing I find crazy about this is that the feds can put money into it but we can't. I find that pretty curious. It's OK for them, but not for us."
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