Source: Truth in Accounting
Latest Data: Government Financial Reports
Frequency: Annual
Contact: 847-835-5200

To encourage the publication of transparent and accurate government financial information, Truth in Accounting created a Transparency Score for financial reporting. We score each government’s annual comprehensive financial report (ACFR) on eight criteria. To receive the top score of 100 points, a government’s CAFR must meet the following criteria:

• Receive a clean opinion from an independent auditor (50 points)

• Include a net position not distorted by misleading and confusing deferred items (10)

• Report all retirement liabilities on its balance sheet (statement of net position) (10)

• Be published within 100 days of the government’s fiscal year end (10)

• Be easily accessible online (5)

• Be searchable with useful links from the table of contents and bookmarks (5)

• Be audited by an independent auditor who is not an employee of the government (5) (This criterion and the next criterion also apply to the CAFR of the state government’s largest pension plan.)

• Measure the net pension liability using the same date as the CAFR (5)