Carol Earnhardt, Chair of the Scott County Board of Supervisors, announced today that Scott County has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Popular Annual Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for Scott County’s FY16 Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR) for the first time. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition for excellence in state and local government financial reporting. In order to be awarded a Certificate of Achievement, a government is evaluated on information presented, reader appeal, understandability, distribution, and other elements including the government’s type and size and the creativity and usefulness of the report. The County must also publish a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and receive a Certificate in Achievement in that program as well.
As of June 9, 2017 Scott County is one of only three Iowa counties to hold the Certificate of Achievement. Only 5 of the 1,553 governmental units in the State of Iowa currently hold this honor.
The PAFR report has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program including demonstrating a constructive ‘spirit of full disclosure’ to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the PAFR.
The Board of Supervisors has designated the continued achievement of this certification as a priority. The Board expressed their appreciation to David Farmer, CPA, Director of Budget and Administrative Services in Administration; Renee Luze-Johnson, Administrative Assistant; Chris Berge, ERP / ECM Analyst, County Administrators, Dee F. Bruemmer and Mahesh Sharma; and all of the County departments for their work and professional guidance in helping the County to obtain this financial reporting honor.
The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving approximately 19,000 government finance professionals. The association produces a variety of technical publications in various fields of governmental finance, and represents the public finance community in Chicago, IL and Washington D.C.
