Audit of $11.8M in off-the-books Anchorage spending heads to the Assembly

An audit of millions in Anchorage spending that skipped the city's normal purchasing controls goes before the Assembly on Tuesday.

At issue are "non-PO" payments — money spent without a purchase order, the document that records what the city agreed to buy and for how much. At least $11.8 million in such spending since 2024 bypassed both the purchase-order process and the city's public transparency tracker, as Alaska News has reported. The new report, from the city's Office of Internal Audit, examines the controls over those payments in the Purchasing and Controller departments.

The transmittal memo doesn't summarize what the auditors found, their recommendations, or any response from the departments involved — those details are in the full report, available at City Hall and the Loussac Library. The Assembly takes it up Tuesday.