(The Center Square) – The King County Auditor says in an update that the county’s department of community and human services has made positive revisions to what had been lax oversight of social service agencies that were receiving close to $2 billion in taxpayer funding.
“Community and Human Services (DCHS) made significant progress on audit recommendations, improving training and awareness, the April 6 update from auditor Kymber Waltmunson stated.
The original audit, which dates back to August 2025, found that county department of community and human services staff permitted potential fraud, misused funds and made numerous improper payments to contractors.
The auditor in the update cited new requirements put into place to prevent fraud by DCHS, including requiring grantees with multi-year contracts to take a financial management and best practices course starting in July 2026, as well as the county hiring a consultant to improve internal procedures to detect fraud.
The update report also cited anti-fraud training being put in place and required of county social service staff.
“The training discusses the impact of fraud in the public sector, including interruptions to service delivery, reputational damage, and diversion of staff resources,” the update said. “It also incorporates the underlying reasons why people commit fraud and signs that fraud may be occurring.
The 2025 county audit received renewed attention again last month when King County Executive Girmay Zahilay issued an executive order to strengthen the county’s financial oversight and governance practices.
This includes a new internal audit function in the County Executive’s Office and the creation of a new subcabinet with senior leaders across departments.
Waltmunson spoke before the County Council last August, saying that she “was alarmed by the level of internal control failure we encountered.”
“In the rush to hand out nearly $2 billion, the county had left the vault door wide open, failing to perform even the most basic checks on where the money was going or how it was being spent,” she said.
Among the audit’s findings were that the county paid $7,000 to a contractor who had tampered with an original $1,000 invoice.
In other instances, the auditor discovered $37,500 in travel expenses billed after a contract had already expired and hundreds of thousands of dollars in unauthorized payments made by county vendors to unapproved subcontractors.
