Gov. Jay Inslee today issued an executive order directing state agencies to evaluate risk management practices and strengthen the state’s loss prevention practices. The executive order also reaffirms the state’s commitment to enterprise risk management, which is a comprehensive system to minimize risk and liability.
“It is our duty to provide critical state services and manage risks to best serve Washington citizens,” Inslee said. “It is not enough to respond to incidents as they happen. We must work in an integrated way to prevent them.”
Inslee’s executive order, consistent with state law, charges state agencies to provide top management support for safety and loss control and to develop an awareness of risk management through education, training and information sharing.
Inslee’s executive order outlines a number of actions. It requires agencies to adopt best practices such as embedding risk management at all agency levels and analyzing risks when making decisions; prioritizing loss prevention and agency exposure to risk while managing exposures in an interrelated way; working with the Office of Risk Management in the Department of Enterprise Services to identify, assess and report on risks and losses; allocating resources, when feasible, to services for which the state is at greatest risk and to the professional development of risk managers; ensuring that employee performance is strengthened; and reviewing agency mission statements and policies.
All agencies are required to prepare and update an agency risk management policy by Sept. 1, 2016.