City of Paducah Receives 33rd Consecutive Award for Financial Reporting

Date of Release: 
June 27, 2024

Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) has awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the City of Paducah for its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. 

This is the 33rd consecutive year that Paducah has achieved this prestigious award. 

Mayor George Bray said, “Thirty-three years of financial excellence should give every Paducah citizen confidence that taxpayer money is being accounted for and spent in a prudent manner. I could not be prouder of the manner in which we care for taxpayer dollars. The Paducah community should have full confidence in the City’s financial management and the transparency we exhibit around city expenditures.”

The Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, a voluntary document compiled by the City for review and grading, includes the city's audit and various financial and statistical reports. The report was judged by an impartial, independent panel to meet the program's high standards which include clearly communicating the city's financial story. 

City Manager Daron Jordan said, “Fiscal responsibility is the bedrock of retaining the public’s trust when expensing public dollars. Our team, at the City of Paducah, works diligently to maintain such trust. It is always a sense of pride when such hard work is recognized by external organizations such as the GFOA. I am proud to be part of a team that is dedicated to ensure we never lose sight that these are public dollars in which we are entrusted. I’m equally proud of the hard work by our Finance Department, under the leadership of Director Jonathan Perkins, for ensuring that the high standards required to achieve such GFOA recognition continue to be a focus.”

Finance Director Jonathan W. Perkins said, "We are proud to have received the GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the past 33 consecutive years. We believe that attaining this award demonstrates our commitment to the spirit of full disclosure and financial transparency by disclosing information consistent with the nation’s highest standards in governmental financial reporting."

Perkins adds that this internationally recognized award is a critical element necessary for the City of Paducah to maintain a strong Standard & Poor’s AA- bond rating. An excellent credit rating, like Paducah’s, is further evidence that the City is serious about how it manages financial matters.

GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare annual comprehensive financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal.

Annual Comprehensive Financial Report

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