[Archived] Alexandria Receives Top Honor for Financial Reporting

City Press Release


	City of Alexandria, Virginia Office of the City Manager Alexandria City Hall 301 King Street, Suite 3500 Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3211 www.alexandriava.gov Telephone: 703.838.4300 Fax : 703.838.6343

The City of Alexandria received its 22nd consecutive Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting late last month from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for producing an exemplary 1999 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). The certificate is the highest honor a municipality can receive for its government accounting and financial reporting.

The 1999 CAFR outlines the City’s financial position and results of financial operations for the fiscal year that began July 1, 1998, and ended June 30, 1999. The report was considered by a three-member independent panel and judged on more than 200 different criteria, including the practice of full disclosure.

“The City is honored to have again received this award,” Alexandria City Manager Philip Sunderland said. “This achievement exemplifies the hard work and dedication City staff have given to prepare a quality financial report for its citizens.

“The financial report itself illustrates the City’s commitment to financial accountability and the importance of open government,” Sunderland said.

Deputy Director of Finance Laura Triggs, who prepared the report, received the award on behalf of the City.

“The entire staff in the Finance Department gave an extraordinary effort. Everyone worked exceptionally hard and did a great job,” Triggs said. “ It couldn’t have been produced without teamwork.”

In an effort to improve its financial reporting, the City plans to issue its CAFR for the Fiscal Year 2000 under a new government financial reporting model established by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. Alexandria will be the first jurisdiction in Virginia, and one of the first in the country, to implement this new reporting model, which provides new information and a revised format that will help readers to better understand the City’s fiscal position.
The City also received a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its 1999 fiscal year budget from the GFOA. This is the 10th consecutive year the GFOA has honored Alexandria with the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. This award is given to the jurisdictions whose budget documents meet or exceed GFOA’s established criteria.
The GFOA is a non-profit professional association of officials from the United States and provincial Canada officials. The association, in existence since 1906, is dedicated to the management of government financial resources. There are 14,100 members in the organization today.