Kane County has once again achieved the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting with an award-winning comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR), county board Chairman Karen McConnaughay has announced. Kane County was one of just 13 counties in Illinois to be awarded a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence for 2010 by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA), she said.
In recognizing Kane County for demonstrating what it described as a constructive "spirit of full disclosure" to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR , the association also presented county Executive Director of Finance Cheryl Pattelli and her department with its Award of Financial Reporting Achievement in preparing the county's award-winning CAFR.
The latest award marked the 14th consecutive year that Kane County has been recognized for excellence by the GFOA, a nonprofit professional association serving about 17,500 government finance professionals, with offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
"This is the highest form of achievement for a finance department and it is my honor and privilege to present this award to Cheryl Pattelli," said McConnaughay, who credited the department of just three people with Kane County being ranked among the best in Illinois for financial reporting. Given the small size of Pattelli's staff compared to some other counties "What she does is just short of miraculous," said McConnaughay.
According to the GFOA, the CAFR program was established in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual reports that demonstrate a spirit of transparency and full disclosure.
