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An audit of King County, Washington’s Department of Community and Human Services has raised questions about the handling of nearly $1.8 billion in grant funding issued between 2023 and 2024, according to comments from Paul Guppy, vice president for research at the Washington Policy Center.

Guppy addressed the findings by pointing to what he described as widespread financial mismanagement within the county’s largest department responsible for distributing social service grants.

He said the audit showed that officials were unable to fully account for where the money went and that basic safeguards were not followed.

“Largest county in the state has its own headaches. They apparently have misplaced $1.8 billion, maybe they should look in the seat cushions or something and find out where that went,” Guppy said.

He added that the audit focused on grants issued by the Department of Community and Human Services in 2023 and 2024, noting, “a new audit shows in which they don’t know where this money went.”

According to Guppy, auditors found that a significant portion of the funds was sent to recipients who were not authorized to receive them.

“Much of it went to recipients that were not authorized to receive it,” he said.

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He also described a lack of standard financial documentation tied to the spending.

“They paid invoices and didn’t receive receipt. Didn’t get receipts for that,” Guppy said.

The audit further found that records associated with the grants were altered after the money had already been distributed.

“The documentation was actually altered when this money was distributed,” Guppy said, describing the findings as serious and troubling.

Guppy cited examples of the types of programs that received funding, saying the money went to initiatives with names that did not clearly explain how funds were being used.

“It went to programs like healing racism grants, family intervention grants, restorative Community Pathways, kind of gobbledygook,” he said.

“Sometimes that’s hard to tell exactly what this money is being spent for, even if it were being spent legitimacy, legitimately.”

He described the overall conclusions of the audit as severe.

“So the auditor’s report in King County is fairly damning on where this money went,” Guppy said.

Guppy also criticized the response from county leadership after the audit was released.

“What is the response from our leadership? It’s pretty weak,” he said.

He noted that county officials have not followed through on recommendations from the auditor.

“They have not implemented the formal recommendations of the King County Auditor, number one,” Guppy said.

He emphasized what he described as a lack of consequences for those involved.

“Number two, and most importantly, nobody got fired. Nobody lost their job,” Guppy said.

“There has been no impact on the political careers of people who serve on the King County Council.”

Guppy referenced former King County Executive Dow Constantine, who was in office during the period covered by the audit.

“Dow Constantine, the former King County Executive, under whose watch this happened, has moved on to a lucrative career as the director of Sound Transit,” Guppy said.

“And so everybody gets rewarded when $1.8 billion disappeared and was wasted.”

He argued that the situation has created what he described as a cycle with no accountability.

“So the result of that is zero accountability,” Guppy said.

He added that nonprofit organizations receiving county funds have incentives to support the officials responsible for approving those grants.

“And all the nonprofit groups that receive this money, of course, they have every incentive to provide political support to Democrats or elected officials who keep the money flowing,” Guppy said.

Guppy concluded by saying that the only meaningful accountability would come through elections.

“That’s the real circular scandal that’s going on with the way public money is used,” he said.

“The only true accountability can come from the voters, that someone is voted out of office, or that there’s a change in direction of the government of the county.”

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