For the 16th consecutive year, the City of Surrey has won the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting for excellence in governmental accounting and financial reporting.
“It’s very important for all levels of government to enhance openness and accountability. In order to achieve transparency, we need to ensure that we give people the opportunity to access public information in useful and easy to understand ways,” says Mayor Dianne Watts.
The award is presented by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) to organizations which demonstrate full disclosure in their annual financial report and motivate people to read the report.
“We take great care to ensure we clearly communicate our financial picture and go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to provide full disclosure,” says Coun. Tom Gill, who is chair of the city’s finance committee and a certified management accountant.
The GFOA is a non-profit professional association serving 17,400 government finance professionals in the U.S. and Canada. Reports submitted are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and a review committee, which comprises individuals with expertise in Canadian public-sector financial reporting and includes financial statement preparers, independent auditors, academics, and other finance professionals.
