Crow Wing County was nationally recognized for their excellence in financial reporting for the fifth year in a row by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

Crow Wing County is one of 17 counties in the state to receive the Certificate of Excellence for its 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The Government Finance Officers Association recognizes excellence in financial reporting in order to encourage state and local governments to improve the quality of their financial management.

“It’s very important for us to make sure that we are being transparent with the public as far as how our dollars are being spent. They’re generous enough to award us their taxpayer dollars, and we want to make sure that we are accounting for those in a very transparent way,” said Deborah Erickson, Crow Wing County Administrative Services Director. “These awards recognize the fact that our finance department is doing a great job of making sure that people can see and understand how those dollars are being used.”

The county also received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Financial Reporting and Distinguished Budget Presentation. Crow Wing County is one of only four counties in Minnesota to be awarded all three national awards given each year from the association.

“We are very fortunate that we were able to have our staff prepare our financial reports completely in house. We don’t have to rely on outside entities to assist us with that. That’s a really strong skill that we have here, and we were very happy with the fact that we were able to do that in house which makes it easier for us to be able to provide that information to the public,” explained Erickson.

The public is able to view both Crow Wing County financial reports online at crowwing.us.

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter