SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Based on their annual achievements, the quality of this coastal city’s financial reporting continues to be award-worthy.

On Wednesday, South Padre Island officials announced the city received an Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR) award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

According to city officials, the award represents a significant accomplishment that reflects the commitment of city council and staff in meeting the highest principles of financial reporting.

To be eligible for the PAFR award, a government must also submit its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) to GFOA’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program and receive the CAFR award for the current fiscal year.

The Triple Crown Medallion was awarded to signify that the city received all three GFOA awards which include — Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, Distinguished Budget Presentation and the PAFR.

“This is a great representation of the City of South Padre Island Finance Department’s commitment to achieving the highest levels of transparency and financial reporting,” SPI Chief Financial Officer Rodrigo Gimenez stated. “I would like to recognize our accountant, Giovanni Bouquet, for his work on this financial report.”

GFOA is a nonprofit professional association that serves nearly 21,000 government finance professionals throughout North America.

The PAFR program was created in 1991 to encourage, assist and recognize state and local governments that extract information from their CAFR.

The goal is for participating governments to produce annual financial reports that are specifically designed to be accessible and understandable by the general public and other interested parties without a background in public finance.

Eligible reports are reviewed by four judges who complete a specifically designed evaluation form.

The evaluation form has five categories of differing weights of importance — reader appeal, understandability, distribution methods, and other, which includes items such as creativity and notable achievement.

The remaining 50 percent of the score is based on overall quality and usefulness of the report.

Any PAFR with a score of 75 percent or higher is granted the award.