Translate
Special Study on Capital Project Prioritization Criteria
August 24, 2011
At County Council's request, the King County Auditor's Office has drafted countywide criteria for prioritizing capital projects. The criteria can provide useful information to guide project decisions in the annual budget process while recognizing the unique characteristics of each project and differences in funding sources. They also address many of the goals included in the County’s strategic plan. The draft criteria were adapted from current King County agency criteria and examples from other governments. They would need to be refined in partnership with the County Executive should County Council want to further develop countywide criteria.
Audit Highlights
Information available to the County Council and to the public regarding how capital projects are prioritized by individual agencies is limited. There is no countywide summary of capital improvement program priorities. While we located a list of criteria considered by each agency, we found limited information on how these criteria are used to inform which projects are included in capital budget requests. We did not find information on why certain projects move forward to a budget request while others do not. This makes it difficult to monitor agency progress meeting their capital program goals.
The County Executive should explore ways to improve the transparency of agency capital project priorities.
The County Council requested that we identify potential countywide criteria for prioritizing capital projects. Such criteria could be useful for evaluating projects for funding during the annual budget process, while recognizing the unique characteristics of each project and differences in funding sources.