ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
After a months-long investigation and allegations that former Mayor Mark Begich acted irresponsibly more than a year ago by passing through his 2009 city budget and several labor union contracts as the nationwide economy was headed for a recession, an independent Outside firm issued a summary of findings from a forensic audit today.The audit of the city's finances during the last few months of former Mayor Mark Begich's administration concludes that Begich failed to submit financial reports to the Anchorage Assembly, thereby failing to practice prudent fiscal management, according to the summary of findings the Anchorage Assembly received Wednesday afternoon.
In addition to the conclusions about the Begich administration, the report also says the assembly failed to practice prudent fiscal management by failing to ask for those financial reports.
The assembly approved spending up to $50,000 for the forensic audit back in February. A Florida firm, MRW Consulting, conducted the audit. A full report, hundreds of pages in length, was scheduled to be released tomorrow, according to the city clerk's office.
Members of the city's audit committee previewed the report this week, suggesting final changes before its release Wednesday.
After now-Senator Begich left office as mayor in January 2009, he had been under fire from Mayor Sullivan and some assembly members, blaming his '09 budget and union contracts for adding to the city's budget shortfalls faced in 2010.
A report issued by municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler toward the end of last year originally accused Begich of failing to discuss revenue shortfalls with the assembly before it approved the 2009 budget and the labor contracts, something the Anchorage charter requires a mayor to do.
Begich was at former Sen. Ted Stevens' memorial Wednesday. His spokesperson, Julie Hasquet, released the following statement regarding the findings of the city audit:
"We appreciate the report makes it clear the hysterical allegations of misconduct or violations of law have no basis whatsoever.
"It's easy and often helpful to look back retrospectively and evaluate how things could have been done differently. Clearly, many good lessons have been learned that can be implemented in the future.
"But the findings in the audit report need to be evaluated in context. The events and decisions analyzed occurred during the most extreme economic conditions since the Great Depression. Those conditions at the end of 2008 created challenges for governments and businesses in Alaska and across the country that were unparalleled. They were certainly unprecedented in the history of the Municipality of Anchorage."
Contact Jason Lamb at jlamb@ktuu.com
