The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has taken immediate action to rename the GAAP comprehensive annual financial reports. The acronym for the report, when pronounced aloud, sounds phonetically similar to a derogatory term.

The Governmental Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has asked all industry affiliates to stop using the acronym for the report immediately. Instead, industry professionals recommend using the tentative name “Annual Comprehensive Financial Report” when referencing the annual report.

The recommendation is the result of an increasing professional awareness that the acronym, when pronounced aloud, sounds phonetically the same as a derogatory term with ties to the South African Apartheid, and used as a racial slur against Black South Africans.

GFOA and GASB have both determined that the continued use of the acronym is in conflict with the organizations’ commitment to core professional values of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Washington State Auditor’s Office also intends to stop using the acronym as well.

For more information on this change, including the GFOA’s official policy statement and fact sheet, click here.