The Washington State Auditor’s Office found Island County did not accurately report federal grant money in 2002.

State auditors recent found that grant money the county’s public works department received was either reported in the wrong year or misstated on the wrong schedule.

“We were clearly in error in the way we did it, and it won’t happen again,” said Island County Commissioner Mike Shelton this week.

The federal money was not misspent, but auditors found the errors in reporting significant because it results in misleading information going to federal agencies responsible for doling out grant money.

The audit found that that county understated how much it spent in federal grant money in 2001 by $704,000 and overstated that amount by $669,000 in 2002. The county received $225,000 to build the new Island County Mental Health Facility, $99,540 for work on Glendale Road, and another $380,000 for work on Glendale Road. This was money that should have been reported in 2001.

The state auditors also found that $397,000 from the state Department of Transportation for work on Terry’s Corner on Camano Island was also misstated. The money should not have been reported as a federal grant.

“It’s a timing issue,” said Anne LaCour, chief deputy auditor for Island County. “We tried to get a good cutoff for 2002.”

LaCour said informing county departments of the cutoff date should provide accurate information on the county’s Schedule of Federal Awards. LaCour said that the money should have been reported in 2001 because it was spent in 2001.

She added that all of the grant money the county received was accounted for and that there wasn’t any duplication of grant money.

The county is going to provide more training on the importance of reporting grant money in the year spent and to assure the correct segregation of expenditures, according to the report. Outside of the grant money finding, the state auditor’s office found Island County to be a low-risk auditee.

The state audits the county annually.