D.C.’s embattled Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi made the rounds among the D.C. Council on Monday in an effort to reclaim his reputation from a widening public corruption scandal in his office.
Gandhi met with at least two council members, including Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, and had set appointments through the week, sources told The Examiner.
“He’s done great things for the city,” Cheh said. “That plays out two ways. One, he should have a chance to fix things. And two, it means that he should devote his full measure to fixing things up. Let’s see what he comes up with.”
Gandhi has pleaded with council members for more time to clean up the tax office, which was raided earlier this month after federal authorities alleged that two employees had siphoned off tens of millions of public dollars through a series of dummy companies, the sources said.
He still has the public support of Gray, Mayor Adrian Fenty and finance committee chair Jack Evans, Ward 2, but public outrage over the scandal continues to grow and council members are being flooded with e-mails calling for Gandhi’s head.
The District will receive up to $2.5 billion in income, sales and property taxes over the next few months. Many on the council are worried that sacking Gandhi and his command staff will cripple an already hobbled outfit.
Gandhi has said privately that it’s a matter of pride for him to sanitize the tax office and that no one in the city will be more motivated to reform the public’s finances.
Many on the council seem willing to let Gandhi repair the breach, but the conversation in D.C. has shifted: Where Gandhi was once revered in the Wilson Building, some elected officials are already talking about lining up a new CFO.
A source close to Cheh said she dispatched a confidential letter to the other council members agreeing that Gandhi ought to be given a little more time but that officials equally ought to discuss living “in a post-Gandhi world.”
