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City of Santa Ana RFP No. 24‐009 Page 18 of 63 Certificate of achievement assistance The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting is awarded to state and local governments that go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles. It is awarded to state and local governments who produce an annual comprehensive financial report that evidences the spirit of transparency and full disclosure. Members of the GFOA staff and the GFOA Special Review Committee (SRC) review reports submitted to the ACFR program. CLA provides audit services to many entities that received the GFOA Certificate of Excellence in Financial Report. All of the procedures noted in our audit approach and our technical review of the ACFR are done to help the City prepare and publish the top product possible. Our managers and principals who review the ACFR have a strong understanding of the GFOA requirement for the certificate. We understand that this is a prestigious award for the City and a great accomplishment for the Finance and Accounting departments. We will review the GFOA comment letter for each ACFR and provide the City advice regarding the response to the GFOA reviewer’s comments. Our procedures with respect to the ACFR will be the review of the comments from GFOA on the prior year submission to determine they were adequately addressed, completion of the ACFR checklist, and review of the transmittal letter and statistical data to determine that information presented is reasonable and agrees with the information in the financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A), where applicable. We understand the interrelationships of the many and varied components of a governmental entity’s financial statements, allowing us to quickly determine errors or problems with the financial statements. Our depth of knowledge and experience also allows us to assist the City with the preparation of the ACFR and improvement of the City’s financial statements. Our involvement with clients in the GFOA Certificate program helps to determine that we are on the leading edge of reporting trends and techniques. We have been engaged by various entities to review their statements for compliance with program requirements. We have aided clients in the early implementation of professional pronouncements and regularly provide our clients with updates on new pronouncements which will affect them and will do the same for the City. Following is a representative list of government audit clients, we currently serve from the CLA Irvine office, and who have received GFOA awards: Client Date of Service City of Alhambra* 2017‐2020; Consulting 2021‐current City of Camarillo 2022‐current City of Cerritos 2020‐current City of Colton* 2017‐current City of Covina 2019‐current City of Del Mar* 2017‐current City of El Segundo 2019‐current City of Escondido 2022‐current City of Fillmore 2019‐current City of Glendale 2020‐current City Council 21 – 78 5/7/2024