HARRISBURG - The Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) today announced it received two awards from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recognizing PSERS’ commitment and efforts to provide outstanding financial reporting, greater transparency, and better reader appeal in its annual financial reports.
For the 35th consecutive year PSERS’ Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting award from the GFOA. The award is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management. PSERS’ 2017 CAFR has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to communicate its financial story clearly and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR.
PSERS also earned an Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting from the GFOA for its 2017 Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR), which PSERS also refers to as its Summary Annual Financial Report. The prestigious national award recognizes conformance with the highest standards for preparation of state and local government popular reports. In order to receive the Award, a government unit must publish a PAFR, whose contents conform to program standards of creativity, presentation, understandability, and reader appeal. This was PSERS’ second PAFR publication and second award.
PSERS Executive Director Glen Grell commented on PSERS efforts to increase the transparency of the System’s funding and operations, “PSERS has a long history of providing outstanding detailed financial reporting. We are continuing that tradition by creating new, easier-to-read publications, like the PAFR, to better help our members, taxpayers and policy makers understand the System and what we do.”
Grell continued, “These awards could not be accomplished without the hard work and dedication of PSERS’ staff who work tirelessly on behalf of our members. We are pleased to once again receive these prestigious national GFOA awards.”
Copies of PSERS CAFR and PAFR are available on the “financial publications” page on PSERS website at www.psers.pa.gov.
About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System
PSERS is the 15th largest state-sponsored defined benefit public pension fund in the nation. As of December 31, 2017, PSERS had net assets of approximately $56 billion and a membership of nearly 256,000 active school employees and over 230,000 retirees