| ||
| A 2021 Exemplary Knighton Award for best performance audit in the Extra-Large shop category has been awarded to City of Austin, Office of the City Auditor by the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA). The Award will be presented virtually to the audit shop during ALGA’s annual conference on May 2, 2022. The report, Disaster Preparedness: The City was Unprepared to Respond to Winter Strom Uri, was judged on several key elements, such as the potential for significant impact, the persuasiveness of the conclusions, the focus on improving government efficiency and effectiveness, and its clarity and conciseness. The audit of the City’s response to a devastating winter storm was a high-impact report that dealt with an important issue for residents. As one of the judges wrote, “This was a big issue in Texas in general and has long-term implications for continued winter storms and disaster resilience in general.” The audit did an excellent job of explaining the timeline of the City’s response including the use of a fantastic series of visuals that overlaid critical events with the high and low temperatures to better illustrate the challenges City officials and residents were dealing with. This was just one of the very effective visuals the report included that supported the findings and enhanced the readability of the report. The report was well organized, had a great flow, and included sufficient details to allow for an easy read, while bringing the readers along with the message. Overall, the judges felt that this was a high-impact report with the ability to generate effective and efficient changes to improve Austin’s disaster preparedness plan and corresponding response. Each year, local government audit organizations from around the U.S. and Canada submit their best performance audit reports for judging. The purpose of the competition is to improve government services by encouraging and increasing levels of excellence among local government auditors. Judges from peer organizations determined that this audit was among the best of 2021. The Association of Local Government Auditors is a national audit association founded in 1985 committed to supporting and improving local government auditing through advocacy, collaboration, education, and training, while upholding and promoting the highest standards of professional ethics. |
