The King County Department of Community and Human Services has potentially committed fraud, according to a report released Aug. 26 by the King County Auditor’s Office.
A recent audit found that the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) has seen large increases in grant funding in recent years in an effort to make community grants more accessible. But without the proper management of these grants, DCHS “exposed itself to significant financial risk,” the auditor’s office said in its report.
“DCHS did not consistently apply internal controls, resulting in improper payments, including potential fraud, across multiple programs and contracts,” the report states.
The auditor’s office found evidence of potential fraud among both DCHS employees and grantees, including documents that were likely altered for higher reimbursements.
King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, District 9, first requested an audit of DCHS from the Washington State Auditor two years ago, but his request was denied. He then brought the issue to the King County Council, which unanimously passed a request for the King County Auditor to look into DCHS in January.
Dunn said DCHS is a “catch-all” department that does many different things, and a lot of money moves through it, especially after an increase in county tax levies in 2019.
According to the report, DCHS also took on some risk during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to distribute emergency funding quickly. Since then, the department’s grant funding has grown significantly.
Between 2019 and 2020, DCHS awarded $922 million worth of grants. Between 2023 to 2024, it awarded more than $1.8 billion in grants, an increase of more than 95%.
Dunn said he had concerns that DCHS that some of the grant recipients were not making the best use of their funding.
“There came all of these examples that have been published in the media of grant recipients not being effective with taxpayer dollars or some accusations of wrongdoing,” he said.
Dunn specifically noted issues with Restorative Community Pathways (RCP), a juvenile felony diversion program that provides minors an alternative to traditional prosecution. The program has faced controversy and was put on pause in July due to high recidivism rates, meaning a lot of those who went through the program were committing additional crimes.
DCHS is also responsible for managing county tax levies, such as Best Starts for Kids and Crisis Care Centers, for which it runs its own procurement process, according to the report.
“Unlike other contracts, community grants are outside the scope of King County’s central procurement group, limiting independent oversight,” the report states. “In this environment, DCHS faces a higher risk of fraud, waste and abuse as it allocates public funds.”
According to the report, DCHS assigns risk levels to all of the organizations it awards community grants. In 2024, DCHS reviewed 359 grant recipients and rated 48% of them as “high-risk,” an identifier given to grantees that lack experience being funded or monitored by government agencies, as well as those with fewer resources and policies.
The auditor’s office made 10 recommendations to DCHS, including implementing a strategy for financial stewardship; providing anti-fraud training for staff; and developing clear policies and procedures for grant contracts and invoice systems.
“We make recommendations to help DCHS strengthen financial stewardship and build a robust internal control framework to support it,” the report states. “This includes ensuring that staff have the guidance and tools to validate invoices, promote contract compliance and prevent and detect fraud.”
Follow-up reports are scheduled for 2026. The King County auditor’s website has a tracker that will provide progress updates on the 10 recommendations given to DCHS. All 10 are currently open, meaning they “remain unsolved.”
Dunn has put forward an ordinance regarding grant management rules, co-sponsored by King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci, Sarah Perry and Girmay Zahilay, that will be discussed at an upcoming meeting.
Dunn said that the audit making local headlines is proof of how serious the situation is.
“Auditors are measured by their very nature and by the process, so when [they] words like alarmed on television … when there is evidence of falsified documents, and a culture in the agency, potentially, of not supervising these grant programs, it’s serious.”
This story was updated Sept. 10, 2025, to reflect new figures put out by the King County Auditor’s Office. The auditor previously stated that DCHS awarded $22 million in 2019 and 2020 combined and $1.5 billion in 2023 and 2024 combined.
