Auditors issue clean opinion on Anchorage 2024 ACFR, but flag repeated control weaknesses

BDO, the municipality auditors, delivered an unmodified opinion on the Municipality of Anchorage 2024 financial statements, but the audit committee was told the government-auditing-standards report accompanying the ACFR lists internal-control issues that warrant action.

"We did issue an unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements," said Joy Mariner, lead engagement principal for BDO. She told the committee the clean opinion applies to the financial statements themselves but that BDO identified material weaknesses and significant deficiencies under government auditing standards that must be addressed by management and governance.

Mariner highlighted recurring problem areas: grant accounting and reconciliations, capital-asset records and inventory controls, journal-entry approvals and the timeliness of the ACFR issuance. She said some findings are repeats from prior years but that the overall trajectory shows improvement in both the size and number of findings compared with 2022 and 2023.

Committee members pressed for specifics and next steps. The controller, Stephanie Ryan, and staff said corrective-action tracking grids are being provided to the committee and that administration is coordinating follow-up work with auditors. Mariner recommended targeted remediation, additional review layers and earlier involvement of staff or consultants for complex grant administration.

The committee did not take a formal vote on any recommendation at the meeting; members asked staff and auditors to schedule follow-up sessions to review port and FEMA issues and to discuss the 2025 audit plan.