Erie County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz today announced that the Erie County Comptroller's Office has been awarded the prestigious 2007 Bronze Knighton Award for small audit departments from the Association of Local Government Auditors ("ALGA"), an international association of professional government auditors across the US and Canada.

The Erie County Comptroller's Office is the first municipal government auditor in New York State ever to receive any Knighton Award.

The Bronze Knighton Award was issued to the Comptroller based on this office's January 2007 audit and review of operations of the Erie County Holding Center. The Knighton Awards are annually given to government auditors for excellence in performance auditing.

"Our audit of the Erie County Holding Center has been judged by an impartial panel of professional government auditors to be among the best in the US and Canada," Poloncarz said. "We are honored to receive this award and to have our audit work recognized by our peers."

In recent years, other government auditors who have won the Bronze Knighton Award for small audit operations include Palo Alto, California; Portland, Oregon Metro; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Austin, Texas.

"The Knighton Awards are ALGA's highest form of recognition for excellence in governmental auditing. I am pleased that ALGA recognized the outstanding work that our civil service audit staff performed," Poloncarz concluded.

A copy of the Comptroller's audit of the Erie County Holding Center can be found at http://www.erie.gov/comptroller/pdfs/audit_sheriff_holding_center.pdf. Since taking office in January 2006, Poloncarz's office has conducted/completed ten major audits and approximately an additional ten substantive reviews or reports.