State Auditor: One bookkeeper misused thousands of taxpayer dollars across 7 Yakima Co. special purpose districts

YAKIMA, Wash. — A fraud investigation by the Washington State Auditor’s Office found thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds paid to Yakima County special purpose districts were misused between January 2019 and June 2023.

The investigation began in March 2023, when Yakima County Drainage District No. 12 notified the auditor's office they were concerned about their bookkeeper's accounting. Investigators quickly discovered that not only were those concerns valid, but that the same bookkeeper was also providing services to six other districts.

"We ultimately found that the bookkeeper had taken — or had misappropriated funds, is our technical term — from each of these districts through a variety of schemes," said Adam Wilson with the Washington State Auditor's Office.

According to the fraud investigation report, those schemes included overdrawing funds without approval, submitting the same expenses for reimbursement to multiple agencies and unusual payroll disbursements.

“She told our auditors that she was overwhelmed and that it was too much work and she had made mistakes," Wilson said.

The ultimate result was a total of $9,151 in misappropriated funds across the seven Yakima County special purpose districts. There was also an additional $17,706 in questionable disbursements — payments that the auditor's office could not prove were made legitimately.

According to the report, it was weaknesses within the districts' internal controls that allowed the misappropriation and questionable disbursements to happen in the first place. Specifically, the problem was that none of the districts had a written contract with the bookkeeper.

Additionally, all of the districts failed to provide oversight over her accounting, leaving the bookkeeper writing and approving her had her writing her own paychecks without anyone to check the amounts.

“This one's unusual in the sweep of seven districts, but unfortunately, I've seen similar instances of small governments losing funds all across the state," Wilson said.

Wilson said oftentimes, small governments get taken advantage of because they tend to know their employees and don't feel like they need to provide additional oversight.

“It's natural to trust people and to say that someone is a friend, or they're known to you, and they're going to help you keep your books, but it's just absolutely essential in government that we trust, but verify," Wilson said. "Have someone check the books.”

The auditor's office has additional resources on its website for small governments wanting to ensure they're safeguarding public resources.

Most of the districts have now instituted additional controls — requiring written contracts and two-part verification on all payment requests — and the bookkeeper had resigned from all of her work with the districts by the end of last year.

Per their procedure, the Washington State Auditor's Office has forwarded the results of their fraud investigation to Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic to review for potential criminal charges.

Brusic said he has reviewed the report, but that the affected districts need to follow up with law enforcement in order to move the case forward.

"I cannot charge someone out merely on the SAO report," Brusic said. "Any charging decision cannot be made until it is investigated by [law enforcement].”

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