The City of Newnan has won Government Finance Officers Association's (GFOA) Distinguished Budget Award for the past 31 consecutive years! The GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA's best practices on budgeting and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. Documents submitted to the Budget Awards Program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and by outside reviewers with experience in public-sector budgeting.

The annual budget document is very important to the City of Newnan. It reflects the City's strategic planning processes each year as we develop goals and identify the services to be provided to citizens, staff, and visitors of the City of Newnan. The budget document addresses current and future conditions, opportunities, and challenges facing the community and government, and reflects the development of strategies and allocation of resources to accomplish the City's goals and mission. The staff works diligently each year to ensure that a quality document is produced and printed in-house.CAFR Award

Additionally, the City has won GFOA's Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for 2009 through 2019 for its CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report). 2009 was the first year that the City produced a CAFR; thus the City has the distinction of being one of the very few governments who win the award the first year it is submitted! The 2020 CAFR will be submitted to GFOA for consideration of the award also.

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

Reports submitted to the CAFR program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and the GFOA Special Review Committee (SRC), which comprises individuals with expertise in public-sector financial reporting and includes financial statement preparers, independent auditors, academics, and other finance professionals.