Rochester Hills

City’s financial reporting receives award for excellence

By Linda Shepard
C & G Staff Writer

ROCHESTER HILLS — Every year for the past 23 years, the city has received a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association.

The certificate is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and it was given to the city’s primary employee responsible for preparing the comprehensive annual financial report — known as the CAFR — City Accountant Pamela Lee.

Lee explained that the annual financial report is basically a “gathering of the city’s funds and information.”

Selected members of the GFOA staff and the GFOA Special Review Committee review reports submitted to the CAFR program. The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association that serves approximately 17,500 government finance professionals and has offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Although Rochester Hills has received the award for excellences for more two decades, the process is never uncomplicated, Lee said.

“It is a lot of work. The certificate has a checklist of requirements that have to be in the report,” she said. “We still anticipate and wait for it every year. There are always changes; it is not the same every year. It basically says we have a clean set of books.”

Lee said residents are encouraged to examine the city’s annual financial report at the Rochester Hills municipal offices or at www.rochesterhills.org. Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett heralded the award Jan. 17 in a release.

“This award demonstrates the city’s commitment to go beyond the minimum requirements of general accounting principles by preparing a comprehensive annual financial report in the spirit of transparency and full disclosure,” Barnett said.

“Compiling the report is an accomplishment in itself and could not have been achieved without the dedication of the entire accounting team and assistance from the fiscal team,” Lee said. “Receiving the award is a true sense of achievement.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Linda Shepard at lshepard@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1065.