The Governor’s office announced yesterday that the Government Finance Officers Association has recognized our state government with a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Winning this award required the state to complete its CAFR within six months of the close of the fiscal year, which we did, just barely, on December 30, 2016. Wow—a whole day to spare! Well done, Bureau of Finance and Management!
This appears to be GFOA’s first such recognition of our entire state government. As of 2016, the South Dakota Retirement System had earned the certification 21 times, as has Vermillion city government. Sioux Falls and Watertown have earned GFOA’s certificate for over three decades; Brookings is working on its tenth certificate.
As seems too often the case, South Dakota is catching up with other states. As of 2016, 43 other states had already earned GFOA’s certificate, most of them for over a decade. Minnesota has earned 31 such annual certificates for its financial reporting.
Congratulations, Financial Re-Porter’s. A worthy award. It’s time to forget about this article below ⇩⇩⇩ and move forward with liberal transparency, honest disclosure and a total under-the-rug vacuuming. Oh, yeah … and a valid ethics commission.
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/11/09/18522/south-dakota-gets-f-grade-2015-state-integrity-investigation
Now let’s work on in-state auditing and oversight.
Rub it in, rub it in. Who knew oversight and auditing were potential life saving activities?