The D.C. Council pledged $800,000 in the approved fiscal 2008 budget to audit a pair of public institutions that spend millions of tax dollars every year on education and technology with little government oversight.
In the $5.6 billion local budget, adopted unanimously Tuesday by the council, the Universityof the District of Columbia received a $64 million subsidy while the Office of the Chief Technology Officer picked up $72.1 million. But with both allocations will come investigations into the agencies’ operations and spending, neither of which are well understood by government authorities.
With OCTO, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer can’t say whether the agency’s spending is merited.
“The Office of Budget and Planning has never had technology expertise, so when OCTO comes to us with budget or spending proposals, we don’t have that level of expertise to say, ‘Yes, this is appropriate, this is to industry standards or this is what other people are spending,’ ” said Maryann Young, CFO spokeswoman.
The council allotted $300,000 to “conduct a financial review of the District’s information technology projects.” The audit “will help us better oversee and manage and administer OCTO’s budget,” Young said.
So far in fiscal 2007, OCTO has awarded 29 contracts worth $22.6 million. It requires nearly $4 million to maintain 21,000 software licenses. Its fledgling telecommunications system, DC-NET, was expected to save money, yet the government pays more for phone service now than it did before.
“This year and every year OCTO’s budget is subject to extensive analysis and vetting by the administration and CFO,” Christina Fleps, OCTO spokeswoman, said in a statement.
With regard to UDC, $500,000 was set aside “to assess the basic operations and infrastructure of the university.” The school hasn’t been audited in years and one is warranted “to really get an understanding how everything is working … and where you can invest to improve it,” said Eric Goulet, the council’s budget director.
