WIAF Webinar

Public Accountability: Using Visual Dashboards to Inform the Public on Fiscal Health of Local Governments

How do we get more eyes looking at our work? Visualizing data can make reports easy to digest for the publics and can increase transparency and public accountability. In this webinar, we will hear two examples of dashboards developed by the Arizona Office of the Auditor General and the California State Auditor’s Office to increase and promote transparency in local governments.

The Arizona school district financial risk analysis uses a year-round process to gather and analyze the most current data available for 10 financial risk measures and communicate with the identified highest-risk districts. Collectively, the measures relate to a district’s overall risk of not being able to operate within its available cash resources and budget constraints. Our analysis focuses on identifying the districts at the highest risk based both on their current and potential future financial difficulties. Once identified, we communicate with those districts to help their decision makers recognize their financial risks and encouraged them to plan for and take necessary actions to improve their financial position. The Arizona dashboard is accessible at https://frisk.azauditor.gov/.

In October 2019, the California State Auditor launched a new tool—an online dashboard—that ranks more than 470 California cities based on detailed information about their fiscal health. Annually, California State Auditor’s Office staff collect and analyze key financial data about California cities and use it to calculate various financial indicators to identify cities that may be facing fiscal challenges. The summary of this analysis is presented on an interactive dashboard that allows users to view the results and the underlying data for individual cities. Through this transparent interface, California residents, state and local policymakers, and interested parties have a data driven view of each city’s fiscal health. The California dashboard is accessible at https://auditor.ca.gov/local_high_risk/overview.

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For more information, contact:

Luis Escalante, Jr.
EscalanteL@gao.gov
214-777-5693