Audit timeliness and collaboration are key to maintaining your government’s bond rating

We urge our local government clients to keep in close communication with our Office to achieve cost-effective and timely audits, which is critical to help governments maintain their bond rating.  
 
Rating agencies such as Fitch, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s rely on financial audits as a window into a local government’s financial health, and they require governments to provide a recent audit as part of their process.   
 
To explore the issue from multiple angles, we’ve put together a special report, “Three Perspectives: How Audit Timeliness Impacts Government Bond Ratings” (PDF), which includes detailed viewpoints on the topic from a city finance director, a bond underwriter to local governments and an audit leader from our Office.  
 
This information first appeared in September 2024 as part of a larger newsletter for the Washington Finance Officers Association annual conference. For your convenience we have created this special standalone report you can download (PDF).  
 
If you have questions, please reach out to your local audit team.