City of Rosemount Acquires Financial Reporting Award

The has been given a Certificate of Achievement by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for the 15th consecutive year for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR).

According to the GFOA, "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."

"[We got it for] being very transparent in the report, [and] once again we were able to meet the standards. It is a good goal to shoot for each year," City Administrator Dwight Johnson said. 

The city applies for this award each year, and the GFOA has specific standards that cities that apply must meet to obtain the award. This year, there were 96 cities in Minnesota that were given this award. (There are 853 cities in the state of Minnesota, however, not all likely applied for this award.)

"It is gratifying knowing that the City’s financial reports are recognized as having met all of the requirements that the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) requires to receive this award," Rosemount Finance Director Jeff May said. "It is an accomplishment that could not happen without the hard work of the whole Finance Department. It also could not happen without the assistance of all city staff that we request information from in order to put the final report together."

The GFOA created the CAFR Program beginning in 1945 "to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal," according to the GFOA's website.

The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving approximately 17,500 government finance professionals with offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C.