The city’s top finance official defended himself Wednesday against charges by an auditor that he improperly released more than a half million dollars in bonus checks late last year to departing District officials. The $525,846 in bonuses given to 28 top aides of former Mayor Anthony Williams at the tail end of his administration drew the scrutiny of the D.C. Council at a session chaired by Councilwoman Carol Schwartz.
“This appeared to be a race to shovel money at people as they’re running out the door,” Schwartz said. “Maybe they were merited based on performance, but I think the lesson to be learned here is that it just didn’t look good.”
But Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi rejected any notion that his office improperly released performance bonus checks for top D.C. officials without the proper written justification, as D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols alleged in her report released Friday.
In a letter to Nichols, Gandhi contradicted most of her conclusions — especially those that linked the CFO’s office to a pair of performance bonus payouts in August and October of last year.
Auditors found that the Office of Personnel and the CFO circumvented personnel and payroll regulations to ensure that the bonuses went out before Williams left office.
Gandhi was not contacted by the auditors during the investigation. In response to their audit report, Gandhi wrote:
» The August and October 2006 bonuses covered two separate fiscal years.
» The checks were disbursed with the proper form 27-A in hand.
» Former City Administrator Robert Bobb rightfully collected a $15,600 check a month after his resignation because the award related to his performance in the previous fiscal year.
There was general agreement during the hearing that Williams’ personnel director violated regulations in justifying the 28 awards and determining their amounts. Leigh Slaughter, the auditors’ legal advisor, told the committee that the office has had preliminary talks with the Office of the Attorney General. But the bonuses were not described as illegal, only “improper.”
Human Resources Director Brender Gregory reiterated that she has halted all bonus payments until revisions to the personnel manual are finalized. And she pledged the “infractions” will not be repeated.
