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Video Update: CWEDA Audit (Originally Posted 5/14/20) - ARCHIVED

NOTE: ARTICLE ARCHIVED AS IS ON THE DAY OF ORIGINAL POSTING FROM CITYOFCAMAS.US

State Audit of CWEDA Completed

In this video, Mayor Barry McDonnell gives a quick update regarding the recent State Audit of CWEDA.

Transcription: "Hey, I just wanted to follow up on an audit that we received today from the State. The audit was of CWEDA. CWEDA was the association that was created by the leadership of the Cities of Washougal and Camas and the Port of Camas-Washougal. The primary mission of CWEDA was to help existing businesses succeed and bring new businesses and jobs to the area. Annually, in accordance with an inter-local agreement, the Port provided $100,000 and each City provided spent $50,000 each year on this. The Association was formed in 2011 and was governed by a 3-member Board from each jurisdiction. The Office of the Washington State Auditor recently audited the organization and showed the Association's Board did not provide adequate oversight over financial activities, which resulted in a loss of public funds.

There were three findings from the audit, CWEDA's Board (Camas Washougal Economic Development Association) did not:

Did not comply with the Open Public Meetings Act.
Did not ensure annual reports were submitted promptly to the State Auditor's Office in accordance with State law.
Did not have any internal controls at the Association to safeguard public resources. Specifically, the Board did not adequately monitor the Association's financial activity.

There was also a fraud investigation that determined a disbursement misappropriation totaling $19,311 that occurred at the Association between February 15, 2013 - February 12, 2019. They also found questionable transactions totaling just over $45,000 that occurred between April 30, 2012 - March 1, 2019.

I am very appreciative of the State Auditor's Office doing the thorough work that they did. CWEDA has been disbanded and will no longer be in existence starting next month. We currently have no one at the City-level that had any oversight on this organization. As I said in my last video, I am confident that this type of audit will make us stronger and improve controls in the future. Again, we don't have any similar Associations currently that I am concerned with. I just wanted to follow up as you will probably be hearing more about this in the news. I just wanted to let you know what was going on. Thank you for your time. We will talk soon."

9 comments

9 Comments

Douglas Strabel

May 17, 2020

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Willing to bet that the $19K is just the tip of the proverbial ice berg and is nothing but a false flag. Nobody would blow a $100K+ gig for that amount.

Phil Williams

May 18, 2020

•

Replying to

I read the auditor's post and full report through Watchcamas links like Margaret mentioned. It talked nearly (I think) $850k in checks he wrote to his own company without oversight, so you may just be on to something Doug.

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LAST UPDATED: 3/31/20