HIGH RIVER, AB: Once again, the Town of High River has received The Canadian Award for Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). The award was given for its 2017 financial statement report, and presented to Kola Oladimeji, Chief Financial Officer for the Town at the regular Council meeting of March 11, 2019.
“This award not only recognizes our commitment to open and transparent reporting, it shows the strength of our financial team and organizational excellence of the Town in line with the 2019-22 Council strategic plan,” says Craig Snodgrass, Mayor of High River. “We are honoured to be among the 15-20 out of 352 Alberta municipalities to receive this award for second consecutive year.”
The GFOA established the Canadian Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program (CAnFR Program) in 1986 to encourage and assist Canadian local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles and prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that show evidence of their spirit of transparency and full disclosure. The program encourages municipal governments to publish high-quality financial reports and then to recognize the individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal.
Reports submitted to the CAnFR program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff as well as a review committee, which comprises of individuals with expertise in Canadian public-sector financial reporting and includes financial statement preparers, independent auditors, academics, and other finance professionals. Reports are judged based on their ability to meet the high standards of the program, including demonstrating a constructive ‘spirit of full disclosure’ designed to clearly communicate the municipality’s financial story.
“We are all proud of this great achievement and associated with the league of excellence in Financial Reporting and we are committed to keeping this as a minimum standard and even surpassing this standard in future years” says Oladimeji.
The Town of High River 2017 Financial Report and the award can be viewed online at www.highriver.ca/accounting-and-finance under the Financial Statements tab on the left side of the webpage.