City Administrator Allen Lew was slammed in a recent audit for constructing an “opaque” record keeping system and allowing a conflict of interest involving $15 million in payments to be made under Lew’s watch when he was the director of the District’s school modernization office. “It appears [the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization] deliberately set up their record keeping system to obstruct transparency of and accountability for its use of capital funds on [D.C. schools] facility construction and modernization projects,” D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols wrote.
Lew took the helm of OPEFM when it was created in 2007 to oversee the 15-year, $3.5 billion school modernization program. Vincent Gray appointed him as city administrator when Gray was sworn in as mayor in January. Lew declined to comment Tuesday through a spokesman but in an 11-page response to the audit said he was employing “best business practices of both the public and private sectors” when running the office and developing his record keeping system.
