THE Shire of Chittering has once again been recognised for their report writing excellence with a gold award at the Australasian Reporting Awards (ARA).

It is the second time in the past two years for the shire with the achievement being particularly significant for Chittering as it is one of only four local governments in the state to achieve gold status alongside the cities of Stirling, Wanneroo, and Joondalup.

Chittering was also the only shire in the state and one of three shires in the nation to receive a gold award this year.

It is the smallest shire in Australia to receive this recognition, serving a community of around 7000 residents.

The other two shires that were gold award recipients, served populations of about 62,000 and 192,000 people respectively.

The ARA gold award recognised excellence in annual reporting, including transparency, accountability, governance, financial stewardship, and clear communication with the community.

Shire of Chittering governance and corporate performance manager Zelda Jansen is responsible for coordinating and compiling the annual report and said the honour demonstrated transparency and was a mark of pride for a relatively smaller shire.

“We use it as our go-to document for staff as well because there are so many performance results in there,” she said.

“We report on performance, but also where we are going in the next five years.

“The key to developing a good report is your processes and what  you have in place.

“Most importantly, you must bring everyone onboard.

“That needs to happen for it to be cross-functional and you need to focus on services, not people and the organisation.

“It’s a massive honour for us.”

The newest honour came off the back of being mentioned by the Auditor General in parliament for being in the top 20 of best practice entities for band three and four local governments for their audit report.