GFOA's budget awards program: new directions planned for 1994.

• Author: Andrus, Alec
• Position: Government Finance Officers Association

The criteria for GFOA's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award have been revised to make them more clear and understandable and to improve their use as rating benchmarks. Because of their fundamental importance to good budgeting, some of the criteria are designated as mandatory for future awards.

Some significant changes are underway in GFOA's popular Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program (budget awards program). Two years in the making, these changes have been designed to strengthen the program's influence on budgeting and budget documents of governments and nonprofit organizations. Those who participated in the evaluations and discussions of revisions numbered in the hundreds: all individuals who had been serving as reviewers for the awards program, GFOA committee members and staff, and others were invited to assist in evaluating the program, to suggest improvements, and to review and comment on the proposed program changes. The changes will be effective for budgets for fiscal years beginning January 1, 1994, and thereafter.

The program changes include a complete revision and rewriting of the basic awards criteria to make them more clear and understandable and to improve their use as rating criteria. The new criteria include, for the first time, mandatory criteria. Modifications to the rating categories have been made to improve the accuracy and clarity of the ratings assigned by budget reviewers. Changes have been made in program administration to shorten the time between submission and communication of the results of the review. Other improvements have been completed, and more are planned to enhance accuracy and usefulness of the reviews. GFOA's Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Management believes that the changes do not represent tinkering, but rather solid improvements that will allow the program to continue to play a major role in improving the practice of budgeting.

The Need for Change

The budget awards program has proven to be successful. It is growing. It has been a solid tool in GFOA's efforts to enhance the profession. Recognizing that this was true, the GFOA applied the same commitment to the budget awards program as has been applied to other association programs: programs are periodically and systematically reviewed to identify ways to improve their effectiveness. The evaluation of the budget awards program was begun in 1990 and resulted in the significant changes discussed in this article.

The Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program was established in 1984 to encourage and acknowledge exemplary budgeting practices by governmental and nonprofit organizations. The program was developed as a key strategy by GFOA's standing Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Management to provide general criteria and guidelines by which distinguished budget presentations could be recognized. Similar to the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, the budget awards program was structured to involve a significant number of budgeting and other finance and management professionals through the use of volunteer peer budget reviewers and by encouraging broad participation in the program. An important associated goal continues to be to provide an opportunity for finance professionals to develop their skills while contributing time, talents and energy back to the profession.

In establishing the program, GFOA committed to a dynamic and ongoing effort. The fundamental goal for the establishment of the program was to encourage improvement in each participating agency's budget and to enhance budgeting practices through peer review and recognition of excellence in budget documents.

The program was not designed to be an accreditation or certification program; it was developed to provide guidelines rather than standards. While some criteria were identified as key to effective budget documents and presentations, the committee chose to encourage rather than to require improvements in submitted budget documents.

The program was not focused on the style or type of budgeting process used by the participating agencies; it was made flexible to allow a variety of budget formats (program, performance, etc.) as long as they were consistent with the guidelines. The program also did not center upon the provision of extensive conceptual training in budgeting practices. The committee felt, rather, that it could have the greatest impact by encouraging improvements in budget documents and presentations as tangible evidence of the agency's budget practices and achievements.

When the budget awards program was established in 1984, the committee chose to center the award on four major functions of budgets: the budget as a policy tool, as a financial plan, as an operations guide and as a communications device. Although other functions were discussed, these four areas were considered fundamental to budgets across the spectrum of GFOA and a beginning that could be built upon in the future.

A Policy Tool. The budget document is a policy document reflecting policy making that comes to a focus in the budget...