How to Construct A Report
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“One
thought that occurred to me is that the gold
standard for accountability reporting ought to be
citizen-centric.
If you are doing anything else that is great but
report to your citizens
at
a base level and give them the path to more info if
that is what
you
have and
they want.
The
great thing about a citizen-centric report is you
can just about publish July 1 because you don’t have
to do a
superhuman
effort to put a report together and wait for
auditors.”
Thomas J. Sadowski, CGFM, CPA
Director of Accounting
Division of Accounting
State of Missouri |
Developing a four
page Citizen Centric Report does not take a super-human effort.
We are only talking four pages! The first step is to make the
right decision to produce a report!
As a fellow citizen and
taxpayer, surely you appreciate the notion that governments
exist to serve their citizens. Citizens have the right to
understand how their government operates and if their tax
dollars are being spent efficiently and effectively.
Governments have a
responsibility to provide that information in an easily
understandable way. Unfortunately, government financial
statements are often too large and complicated for average
citizens to comprehend. You can fill that void with the
four-page Citizen Centric Report! Let’s get started!
Get started Now! Here are the
tools that you will need:
Other Useful Documents:
Don’t
Reinvent the Wheel! Read How These Governments Produced a Report
City of Saco, Maine
Lisa Parker - Finance Director
lparker@sacomaine.org
Who Decided to Produce the Report?
The decision to produce the
report was primarily made by me as we had put together our
own shorter version of our report to distribute locally,
recognizing that many people would not read our 100+ page
performance report. This was a mechanism to make it better
and have it colorful and more aesthetically pleasing. It
then references the city web site to get more information
through the performance measurement report, CAFR or
distinguished budget document if they are interested.
Who Was Involved in Gathering the Information?
The information for
inclusion in the 4 page report was put together by myself.
How Did You Decide On What Information to Include?
In Saco’s case, I was
fortunate enough to be on the AGA Task Force that was
putting together the Content Guidelines so I used the
discussions we had as a group as far as what I was going to
place on each page of the report.
Where Did You Distribute the Report?
I was fortunate (being the
first to finalize a four page report) that AGA’s public
relations team helped to put it all together for me and
provided the outreach with our local newspapers etc. We
included the four pages in the local paper. We also had a
press conference here at Saco City Hall to kick the report
off, the day before it hit the papers. We also had about
1,000 hard copies of the report prepared which were
distributed at the local grocery stores, public library and
city hall.
How Long Did It Take?
It really did not take long
as the whole thrust of the Task Force was to use information
that was readily available so that finance officials were
not spending lots of time to put together yet another
report. It was therefore a real “cut and paste” kind of
exercise. The first year of putting it together will take
longer as a community will need to decide what to include
but hopefully the prototype will give them guidance, as this
was our intent.
Village of Los Lunas,
New Mexico
Peter Fernández, CGFM – Financial Services Planner
fernandezp@loslunasnm.gov
Who
Decided to Produce the Report?
At the
Village of Los Lunas, the development of the Annual Budget is
the responsibility of one person, the Financial Services Planner
with input from all staff levels. The decision to produce the
citizen centric report and include it as part of the annual
budget was initiated solely by me. At the Village of Los Lunas,
there is a general expectation to look for ways to enhance
any/all products produced by staff members as well as work
processes. Having the AGA samples/templates made the process of
creating the citizen centric report much easier and I am a firm
believer in never reinventing the wheel.
Who
Was Involved in Gathering the Information?
I did have
to rely on the various heads of Departments to develop some of
the summary information. In some cases, although one would
think that the information should be readily available or easy
to obtain, in some departments this became somewhat of a
challenge. Probably some of the most difficult data to develop
were the Village’s Service statistics. I received very good
responses to my requests for data because I believe that I made
it clear that the information that was being presented was
useful not only to the public but also to each of the
departments and it was presented as an opportunity for them to
share some of their accomplishments. It is my intention to call
for the data much earlier in the budget process so departments
are not under so much stress.
How
Did You Decide On What Information to Include?
The
decision of what to include was a combination of using the AGA
examples, my knowledge of organizations/services that the
Village provides and what could be developed within a short
timeframe. I will review the developed report early in my
budget process to determine how/what can be enhanced within it
and get the word out regarding data that needs to be submitted
to me.
Who
Had Final Approval?
The final
approval of the report was at the Village Administrator level
however; I did present the information at a Mayor/Council
meeting for their feedback. I informed the Administrator that I
intended to include the report at the front of my annual budget
because in many respects it serves as an ‘Executive Summary to
the Annual Budget’. I also made sure that the Village’s state
budget analyst was well aware of my inclusion of the new report
at the front of the budget document that was sent to the state
for our annual budget approval.
Where Did You Distribute the Report?
In
addition to adding the report to the annual budget document,
copies of the report are posted on our web page and printed
copies are made available at our document display rack in the
front lobby of our Administration building as well as being made
available at our public library.
How
Long Did It Take?
I would
estimate that preparation of the report took about two weeks
calendar time due to the slight delay in getting some of the
data back from various departments. However, the actual
preparation time that I devoted to developing the first report
is very hard to quantify. I would estimate that I did not spend
more than 24 hours in reading/learning about the AGA’s Citizen
Centric initiative, requesting/discussing data with staff
members/department heads, writing and reviewing the report.
Again, having the AGA templates available as well as actual
examples of reports completed made the process much easier.
City of Portland, Oregon
Drummond Kahn, CGFM – Director of Audit Services
drummond@ci.portland.or.us
Who
Decided to Produce the Report?
We, the
City Audit Services Division, recommended to our elected City
Auditor that a report should be developed. We conveyed to him
that the report could be produced using the current budget and
that much of the information could be found in our Service,
Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) Report. The City Auditor gave
us the go ahead to proceed.
Who
Was Involved in Gathering the Information?
Three of
our Audit Services Division staff members, including a Senior
Management Auditor who had prepared similar Trends and SEA
reports, as well as our Public Information Representative were
involved in gathering the information to be included in the
report. Much of the information was already available in City
budget documents and in our annual SEA report.
How
Did You Decide On What Information to Include?
We
followed AGA’s Citizen Centric Content Guidelines in determining
what information to include in our report. We also took a look
at other government’s four page reports for ideas. Again, the
information included was readily available in our SEA report,
with a few items from the City's Adopted Budget. In addition,
some of the background and highlights about the City were drawn
from recent City press releases and background information from
our SEA report and City website. Nothing entirely new was
written or compiled just for the Citizen-Centric report (in
other words, the Citizen-Centric report only includes
information already public from other City documents).
Who
Had Final Approval?
Our City
Auditor had the final approval of the report.
Where Did You Distribute the Report?
We held a
press conference with AGA officials and key City officials,
distributed a press release, and posted the report on the
Auditor's Office website and the main City web page. Copies of
the report were mailed to key report recipients (including local
libraries) and available in the Auditor's Office.
How
Long Did It Take?
It took
about 6-7 weeks total, about 35-40 hours total to produce our
report.
State of Oregon
John Radford, CGFM – State Controller
john.j.radford@state.or.us
Who
Decided to Produce the Report?
We asked
our state Budget Manager, the State Economist, the lead CAFR
Preparer, the Performance Management expert, and the Public
Relations Officer to come together and discuss this idea. That
group decided to proceed to do a CCR.
Who
Was Involved in Gathering the Information?
Each
person took a page of the report. The State Economist took page
one, the Budget Manager took page two, the Preparer took page
three, and the last page was the Performance Management expert
and the Public Relations person.
How
Did You Decide On What Information to Include?
Each
person took about 10 days to offer their version of their page
and we then convened a meeting and reviewed offering suggestions
and linkage. Then they individually produced a final draft page
and sent it all to the Public Relations officer. Another week.
The PR
person put it all together and sent it out to the group for
final review and tweaking changes which the PR person did and
produced a final document. The PR person then reviewed with the
Governor’s Office and the AGA. Another week.
Where Did You Distribute the Report?
Once we
had agreement we sent it to the state printer for printing. It
was very popular with the Governor’s Office and he used it with
citizen groups.
How
Long Did It Take?
In total,
I’d say about 4 to 5 weeks.
The group
has decided to do a second edition and we’ll start that in
January – at the conclusion of the 2007 CAFR.