PUD Receives Clean Audits from State

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2020

The Washington State Auditor's Office recently completed an audit of Skagit PUD, giving the utility high marks for its good internal controls.

The accountability audit, which focuses on internal controls, looked specifically at the Open Public Meetings Act, payroll, safeguarding of assets and procurement.

The accountability audit results showed that Skagit PUD complied with applicable requirements and provided adequate safeguarding of public resources.

The financial audit reviewed year-end financial statements and how Skagit PUD performed according to applicable reporting standards.

The financial audit revealed what the State Auditor's Office calls a "material weakness" in our financial reporting. This relates to Skagit PUD’s longstanding policy on when to depreciate capital assets.

It’s been Skagit PUD’s practice that capital assets not be depreciated until an entire project relating to that asset is complete.

Specifically, the PUD started utilizing its new financial software for payroll and accounts payable modules back in 2013. The remaining software modules still needed to be implemented and the project was not completed until earlier this year.

The State Auditor's Office stated that the PUD should have started the depreciation dating back to 2014.

Even with this material weakness, Skagit PUD was given a clean financial audit. The financial audit is based on evaluation of the year-end financial statements and those were done correctly.