The District’s finance office is losing several key upper level managers who helped guide the agency through the recession, disastrous audits and the wake of the $50 million tax scandal.
Robert Andary, director of Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi’s Office of Integrity and Oversight, who joined the office in 2008 after the tax scandal broke, resigned effective Oct. 3, The Examiner has learned. The last day for Robert Ebel, the agency’s chief economist and deputy CFO for the Office of Revenue Analysis, is Friday. Thomas Berger, associate CFO for education, also is out as of Friday.
“All of these individuals have made significant contributions to the OCFO and will be missed,” Gandhi wrote in an Oct. 9 all-staff memo.
Andary, former inspector general for the U.S. Government Printing Office, was hired not long after federal authorities broke up a two decade-long $50 million fraud led by a mid level manager in the Office of Tax and Revenue. His appointment won praise from Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans, chairman of the finance and revenue committee, who expressed hope at the time that Andary would “ferret out employees who are not of an honest nature.”
“Bob came to the OCFO at a time of crisis and did much to steady our path over the past 2 years,” Gandhi wrote.
Andary could not be reached for comment.
Mohamad Yusuff, director of the OCFO’s internal audit division, has been named interim chief of integrity and oversight. He briefly served in the same capacity following the resignation of Ben Lorigo, Andary’s predecessor.
Ebel, a former economist for the World Bank, is leaving “to pursue other opportunities,” Gandhi said. He will be replaced by Fitzroy Lee, Gandhi’s director of revenue estimation. Ebel “has done much to strengthen the OCFO’s research and analytical capabilities,” Gandhi said.
Berger also resigned to pursue other opportunities. He joined Gandhi’s team in August 2008, not long after the District’s outside auditor concluded that the D.C. Public Schools’ finances were a “material weakness” and threatened the city’s standing onWall Street.
Two Gandhi aides, Deloras Shepherd and Mohamed Mohamed, will assume Berger’s CFO responsibilities.
Karyn-Siobhan Robinson, Gandhi’s spokeswoman, said the three resignations occurring in a short period of time was a coincidence, “as far as I know.”
“None of it is anything but retiring or moving on,” Evans said Wednesday of the exits. “It’s a big loss though.”
