According to the city’s press release, an impartial panel aiming to meet the high standards of the program judged the report. The certificate of achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.
Forvis, the company that conducted the city of Roanoke audit, shared this comment from a member of the Government Finance Officers Association review panel: "In reviewing this report, it appears the city’s team has dedicated a significant amount of effort in producing a very good annual comprehensive financial report and should be commended for this.”
The Government Finance Officers Association was founded in 1906 and represents public finance officials throughout the United States and Canada. The association has more than 20,000 members who serve in financial operations at the federal, state and local level. According to the organization’s website, the Government Finance Officers Association established the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting program in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare annual comprehensive financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal.
“I want to share a huge thank you to our hard working and dedicated finance department, and our CFO, Vicki Rodriquez,” Roanoke City Manager Cody Petree said. “We are proud to be awarded the Government Finance Officers Association excellence in financial reporting award for the 17th year. Our finance department does an incredible job of providing easy-to-understand city financial transparency, and we are so proud of this achievement.”
