The Sweetwater Authority received an award for excellence in financial reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence was awarded for the Sweetwater Authority for its comprehensive annual financial report also known as a CAFR.

The CAFR is a set of U.S. government financial statements comprising the financial report of a state, municipal or other government entity that complies with the accounting requirements promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

“The idea is to create better transparency of a government entity to the people it serves. This document has a lot of technical details but it can be enhance to be more easy to read for the customer,” said Director of finance of the Sweetwater Authority, Rich Stevenson. “Every year, we are required to do this document, but the award we just got means that we took a step further in the CAFR, and that we met all the highest standards.”

The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government agency and its management. This is the Authority’s first time receiving this certificate.

“Obtaining this prestigious award from GFOA is a shining example of the Governing Board’s commitment to striving towards its vision to uphold the Authority as a premier water agency,” said Teresa Thomas, Board Chair of the Sweetwater Authority. “Staff worked tirelessly to complete the application process, and to ensure that the Authority met or exceeded all of the 238 reporting requirements. I am appreciative of the hard work of staff and my colleagues on the board and I will continue to keep financial responsibility on the forefront of our efforts for our ratepayers.”

The CAFR has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the comprehensive financial report.

“This award means that we added some elements to our financial report that made it more easy to digest, read and understand for our clients to make it more reliable to them,” Stevenson said. “All the steps we took towards this award means all of our efforts of continually improve transparency of local government operations for the customers that we served.”

Sweetwater Authority, a joint powers public agency, provides public water service to approximately 189,000 people residing in National City and the South Bay Irrigation District, which includes portions of Chula Vista and most of Bonita.

The Sweetwater Authority CAFR can be found on the agency’s website under the about us tab in the documents tab. It includes the introductory section, the financial section and the statistical section.