Cheh demands explanation of firetruck, ambulance donation
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
March 27, 2009
A key D.C. Council member on Friday demanded an investigation into the giveaway of a District firetruck and ambulance to a beach resort town in the Dominican Republic, in a deal that appears to have been orchestrated by a D.C. nonprofit.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, chairwoman of the government operations committee, called on Chief Procurement Officer David Gragan to explain how the two vehicles, valued at a combined $340,000, could soon make their way into the hands of the Peaceoholics, who are expected to turn them over to the town of Sosua on the north Dominican Republican coast. The Examiner first reported the arrangement Thursday.
The Office of Contracting and Procurement, Cheh wrote in a letter to Gragan, manages the District’s surplus sales program, which is meant “to generate needed cash flow from these sales for the District” through the auction of property that is no longer needed, including vehicles. OCP quietly signed off on an emergency rule, issued in the March 20 D.C. Register, that allowed the government to pass surplus property through the Peaceoholics to Sosua.
“Donations made through intermediaries to foreign nations under emergency rulemakings and without sufficient justification threaten the image of [OCP] and the District,” Cheh wrote.
Cheh urged Gragan to explain why the deal met “emergency” status, how often OCP has given property to an organization and then allowed it to transfer the property to a third party, what relationship the Peaceoholics have with Sosua, and why the group was selected as an intermediary for the transfer.
Asked Friday whether he would put a stop to the donation, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said, “I haven’t decided yet.” Nor has he decided, Nickles said, whether the deal was questionable in the first place.
Before he stopped returning phone calls from The Examiner, Peaceoholics co-founder Ron Moten said that “some friends of mine” were regular visitors to Sosua and had established a relationship with the town’s mayor. Through that relationship, it was learned that Sosua, a resort town popular among surfers and European expatriates, needed a firetruck and ambulance and was in “great financial distress.”
Moten said he approached an assistant fire chief to get the ball rolling.
“We didn’t see nothing wrong with it,” Moten said. “We saw it as a great opportunity to expand what we’re doing in opportunities for our children.”
