AGA's Certificate of Excellence in Citizen-Centric Reporting
AGA
now offers a Certificate of
Excellence in Citizen-Centric Reporting for entities
that prepare and distribute high-quality Citizen-Centric
Reports. To be eligible for the certificate, governments must
incorporate into their report the program’s high standards of
content, visual appeal, readability, distribution and timeliness
in reporting as outlined below in the
Judging Guidelines.
A
Certificate of Achievement in
Citizen-Centric Reporting will be presented to those
entities that fall short of incorporating all of the
requirements for the Certificate of Excellence, but still have
produced a four-page report.
Judging
Guidelines
AGA will examine the reports and make suggestions for
improvement, as we do for our Certificate of Excellence Programs
in Performance and Accountability Reporting at the federal level
and Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reports for state and
local governments.
The following elements
must be included in
the report to be eligible for the
Certificate of Excellence:
1. How
the entity is organized/operates (items such as vision statement
and strategic goals)
2. Key
accomplishments surrounding key missions and service and/or
along with selected performance measures.
3. Bar
and/or pie charts to display revenues and expenses.
4. Similar
statements are listed: An independent audit was conducted,
resulting in a clean audit opinion. Complete financial
information can be found at
www.xyz.gov.
5. Future
challenges affecting the entity.
6. Similar
statements are listed: We want to hear from you. Do you like
this report? Do you believe it should include any other
information? Please let us know by contacting xxx.
7. Report
is ‘free’ of technical accounting language.
8. Report
incorporates pictures and other graphics to make it visually
appealing.
9. Report
has been distributed (hardcopy, posted to website and/or posted
in newspaper)
10. Report
is issued in a timely manner following the close of the entity’s
fiscal year:
a.
First-year report submitted to AGA: must be within 6
months with a clean audit
b.
Second-year report submitted to AGA: must be within 5
months with a clean audit
c.
Third-year report submitted to AGA: must be within 4
months with a clean audit
d.
Fourth-year and beyond report submitted to AGA: must be
within 3 months with a clean audit
Cost
There is no cost to participate in the program.
Application
Process
To submit your report for the
certificate program, please complete the
Certificate of
Excellence in Citizen-Centric Reporting Application
and forward along with 5 copies of your report (and/or
include a link to a website where the report is posted) to: The
Citizen-Centric Reporting Program, AGA, 2208 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301 or via e-mail to
sfritzlen@agacgfm.org, 800.242.7211.