The City of Wichita has been recognized nationally for several awards related to the City’s budget, performance measures and procurement practices. The awards were presented to the Finance Department at today’s City Council meeting.
“The awards demonstrate the diligence of City staff in providing reliable information to the public in accordance with established professional standards,” City Manager Robert Layton said. “City Council are due credit for their continued interest and support in planning and conducting the City’s financial operations in a professional, responsible and transparent manner.”
The Finance Department earned the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Certificate of Distinction for Performance Management, marking the sixth year the City has earned a performance measurement award from ICMA. The award recognizes leadership in performance measures including public reporting and use of results to guide strategic planning and decision making. City government collects and reports more than 400 performance measures in the budget document and the annual performance measure report. Many staffers throughout the organization collect, report, and evaluate data to improve operations, service delivery, and transparency.
The City also received the Distinguished Budget Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), marking the 28th straight year the City has received the award. To receive this award, staff must prepare the budget around certain professional criteria developed. The budget is evaluated as a policy document, an operations guide, a financial plan and a communications device.
The City also received the National Purchasing Institute’s 21st Annual Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award, which recognizes organizations for excellence in procurement by obtaining a high score on a rating of standardized criteria. The program is designed to measure state-of-the-art best practices, innovation, professionalism, electronic procurement, productivity, as well as leadership attributes of the procurement function. The Purchasing Division has received this award for 15 years. Wichita was only one of three government agencies in Kansas and among 72 cities in the United States to receive the 2016 award.
