September 06, 2008
Dave Hodges Tallahassee Democrat
It's hard to beat plain
English for understandable communication. Tallahassee City Auditor Sam
McCall thinks that same basic rule should apply to a financial report,
too. Tallahassee
has become the latest city to publish a "Citizen-Centric Report" as a
means of communicating clear, understandable government financial
information to residents and encouraging citizen involvement in the
budgeting process. The distinction has been recognized officially by
the Association of Government Accountants. "This
is the first year we did it," said McCall. The AGA is made up of about
15,000 financial-management professionals in federal, state and local
government. Their concern is that if citizens are to hold government
financially accountable, then they need information that clearly
explains what government is doing and how it's spending the dollars it
takes in. "What they are getting and what they want are two different things," McCall said. While
many public officials and agencies today regard citizens as customers,
he likes to think of them as owners — similar to the stockholders who
receive company financial statements to know how their investments are
doing. While
stockholders seek profits and return on equity, taxpayers expect to see
what their money was spent on and what was accomplished. "Are we doing
what the citizens expect us to do?" he added. The
four-page report begins with a description of the city's government and
organization, leading into the services provided and how they are
funded. One chart breaks down the sources of the various revenues, and
another shows how they are allocated for police, parks, public works,
debt service and other expenses. And there is a distinct lack of jargon that often appears in such reports. The
AGA's initiative for financial reporting is called Advancing Government
Accountability. The intent is to develop new thinking and practices in
government accountability and transparency, promoting their value to
the public as well as to those in government. The organization stresses
the importance of government financial information that is clear and
understandable, updated regularly, easily accessible and technically
accurate in detail. McCall
says he is interested in Tallahassee residents' reaction as well,
including areas of interest in which an audit may be warranted to
determine whether the taxpayers are getting value for their dollars. "I'm keeping a folder on all the responses I get back from people," he said, adding that nearly 40 have offered their input. For a copy of the report, go to www.talgov.com/auditing/pdf/citizenreportt2007.pdf.
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