The District of Columbia has agreed to pay $1.75 million to head off a lawsuit alleging that the city bilked the federal government out of money to educate children who didn’t exist, The Examiner has learned.
For decades, District schools took in millions of dollars in grants to educate the children of migrant farmworkers and fishermen. But, as first reported by The Examiner in August, a 2005 audit discovered there were no such children in the system.
The federal Justice Department threatened to bring a False Claims Act lawsuit, which could have exposed D.C. to millions in damages. The False Claims Act allows victims to recoup up to triple the money, plus $11,000 in fines for each offense.
The settlement, which was still being worked out between the District and Justice, was expected to be announced early next month, D.C.’s acting Attorney General Peter Nickles told The Examiner Monday.
“There was a lot of exposure on the city’s part,” he said. “It represents, I think, a successful negotiation with the Department of Justice.”
Nickles said that D.C. will sign the settlement without admitting fault. The settlement returns money for two years of grants and includes small penalties, Nickles said.
The settlement likely heads off any federal criminal investigation, sources said. The city has been getting the grants since 1980. The money was part of a set-aside program designed to provide special education and health services for the children of wandering farm and fishery workers as they trailed their parents from camp to camp. But the program was rarely audited. In 2005, D.C. school officials surveyed 333 families classified as migrants for the grant. Auditors couldn’t find 144 of them; the other 189 weren’t migrants.
Sources familiar with the dealings said the city was handicapped in its settlement negotiations by a turf battle between Nickles and then-Attorney General Linda Singer. The two lawyers each tried to negotiate with the government separately, sources said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were supposed to be secret.
Nickles, who forced Singer out and then replaced her, denied the sources’ account.
“The first time I got involved, as I recall, was when I became attorney general,” he said. “I know nothing about Singer’s activity. I just know about mine.”
Got a tip on D.C.’s schools or city government? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or e-mail [email protected].
