Jefferson County has resolved two federal and financial audit findings issued last year, according to an annual state auditor report released Sept. 2.

“We are delighted to have a clean audit from the state auditor's office,” said County Administrator Philip Morley. “There were some minor issues in last year's report and those have been resolved.”

This year's Washington State Auditor's Office report, which examined the local government's financial reporting and compliance with federal regulations during 2013, found no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses.

Last year's report, which focused on such reporting and compliance in 2012, found significant deficiencies in the county's reporting on an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant and its balancing of electronic books between two departments, resulting in what's called a finding.

A finding is the most serious outcome the auditor's office gives after completing an audit, ahead of a management letter and an exit item. Findings are published on the auditor's website, unlike management letters and exit items. This year's report came with no findings.

Last year's audit found the county failed to file required reports on the utilization of small, minority and women business enterprises by the federal agency's deadlines. The reports had to be filed as the county spent federal money on the Puget Sound Watershed Management Assistance program.

A new system for tracking the reports has been in place at the responsible county department, Jefferson County Public Health, since February 2013, the month directly following state auditors' visit.

Secondly, that audit found the county treasurer’s office and auditor’s office failed to reconcile differences in each other's accounting systems, resulting in four discrepancies throughout 2012.

Auditor Donna Eldridge said those discrepancies resulted from a change in reporting requirements in which the state auditor's office wanted parts of the county's annual treasury reports filed electronically, rather than on paper, as had been the method previously.

“It's like we were blindsided for our 2012 report because nothing had changed other than we uploaded instead of handing them paper reports,” said Eldridge.

Since the county auditor's office and treasurer's office use different accounting software, errors were produced when improper transaction codes were used, muddling communication between the two offices and the state accounting system.

“The two systems weren't talking to each other,” she said, adding that actual cash amounts were always reconciled, regardless of system miscommunications.

“The auditor's office and treasurer's office and all county departments work hard for the fiduciary responsibility of the county and the citizens they serve,” said Morley, adding that changes in the new online filing system helped create the errors. “They do an outstanding job.”

This year's report found that issue had been resolved by “assigning additional staff and devoting more time to reconcile differences between the Auditor’s general ledger and the Treasurer’s general ledger.”

Eldridge said soon the two offices will need to reconcile their systems again. While the auditor's office uses an accounting software system called GEMS, the treasurer's office uses a software system called CompuTech, which she said doesn't communicate with GEMS and is due for replacement.

“Our new challenge is when they [the treasurer's office] go to a new system, we have to make sure that new system talks to GEMS,” she said.

The state auditor's office also issues an accountability report on Jefferson County every two years. The next accountability report is due in 2015. The previous two such reports came with no findings.

Audit reports and findings are reviewable at sao.wa.gov.