Anchorage public worker purchases flagged as questionable

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Some purchases made by Anchorage city workers using their purchasing cards have been flagged in an annual review as “questionable or prohibited purchases.”

The city’s internal audit department questioned purchases including flu vaccinations, food and related items for employee training and lunch meetings, appliances for staff use, a gift for employees, artwork for a Christmas card, Christmas cards and premium satellite television subscriptions.

The department looked at 48,298 card purchases from 2016 totaling $18,069,421. The amount represented an increase of about $1.5 million in card spending from 2015, when the department found employees made 45,972 purchases totaling $16,558,975, KTVA-TV (https://bit.ly/2vofCRt ) reported.

The questionable or prohibited purchases were for 24 large purchases that were split to circumvent single transaction spending limits placed on the cards.

“We try to protect the municipality from things that could go bad,” explained Internal Audit Department Director Michael Chadwick.

Split purchases totaling $119,076 were made, the review found.

The purchases were legitimate, Chadwick said, but the split purchases stood out when an audit committee reviewed the report last Friday.

Three city departments including the police department purchased premium satellite television subscriptions at a combined monthly rate of $309.

Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Nora Morse said in an email to KTVA-TV Tuesday that the department pays a monthly rate of $119 ($1,428 annually) for a Direct TV Office package. The subscription was first purchased in 2001 and is used “to follow local and national news and follow public safety issues,” Morse said.

Chadwick said compared to the number of compliant transactions, the number of questionable and split purchases can be fairly characterized as a “drop in the bucket.”

“Most employees are following the rules,” he said. “There were about 48,000 transactions made last year - about $18 million worth of transactions - and most of those purchases that were made followed the procurement card rules.”

Chadwick said new purchasing cards were issued over the summer along with instructions for appropriate card use.

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