D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to do many things. Now, he must act by demanding the immediate resignation of D.C. government’s chief financial officer, Natwar Gandhi. If Gandhi refuses, Fenty should go to Congress and make the case for removing the CFO for gross incompetence in not knowing that employees working for him defrauded city taxpayers of $30 million or more.
The prospects for success of Fenty’s major initiatives — most notably reform of D.C. public schools — depend upon what he does about the inattentive CFO. Gandhi’s departure would send apowerful message to city bureaucrats that incompetence and corruption will no longer be tolerated. Leaving Gandhi on the job would tell the crooks and incompetents that Fenty is all talk and no muscle.
Recommended Stories
Gandhi said earlier this week that he won’t resign voluntarily because he takes his “responsibility very seriously.”
“In this case, the way I take my responsibility seriously is to restore the integrity and reputation of this office that has been damaged and compromised by deplorable acts,” he added.
On that logic, President Bush should have kept Michael Brown in charge at FEMA following Hurricane Katrina. The reality is that Gandhi is the person least able to restore the integrity and credibility of the D.C. tax office. As Councilman David Catania said yesterday, detecting this scam “should have been CFO 101.”
In a transparent attempt to save his own job, Gandhi has dismissed 10 tax office employees implicated in the scam, promising that more will follow them out the door. But it was Gandhi who ignored the city auditor’s warning that having the same person approve tax refunds and manually enter vouchers was asking for trouble. It was Gandhi who did nothing to correct a problem he knew about for more than a year. His recent vow to start requiring upper-management signatures on all refunds over $10,000 comes about seven years and $30 million too late.
If Fenty is unwilling or unable to get rid of Gandhi, he will lose credibility and leverage in dealing with the ongoing power struggle in the public schools, a federal grand jury investigation of prostitution in D.C. fire stations, and a still-ignored GAO report on the city’s failure to follow sound procurement practices in awarding contracts. Fenty has spent a lot of time talking about his plans for D.C. Residents have been waiting with growing impatience for him to do something. A good first step would be removing Natwar Gandhi.
examiNation dc and poll: How do you think Natwar Gandhi has handled the tax scandal?
