D.C. Council members saluted themselves earlier this week for approving emergency legislation in response to the controversy surrounding contracts awarded by the D.C. Housing Authority to companies headed by friends of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. But the bill, halting payments to DCHA and requiring advance reporting on transfers from the Department of Parks and Recreation exceeding $75,000, misses the mark.
It doesn’t resolve the fundamental problem of a constipated contracting and procurement system, which lead Fenty and his predecessor to circumvent the process using DCHA as a conduit. The system is so sluggish and ineffective many managers have sought and received separate powers.
At least 15 agencies have independent contracting authority approved by the council or delegated by the mayor or David Gragan, the District’s chief procurement officer. Each agency is required, however, to forward to the legislature multiyear contracts and contracts exceeding $1 million. (DCHA is guilty of failing to forward.)
The “transparency” legislation introduced by Ward 5’s Harry Thomas doesn’t void any DCHA contracts, however. It doesn’t repair the procurement system. It is focused solely on DPR.
Does the legislature know what’s happening in other agencies with independent authority?
An OCP spokesman told me random audits of contract files, agencies’ policies and processes are conducted. Is that enough? While Gragan has a set five-year term does he have the same independence as the CFO? Can he muscle his way into agencies and demand reforms?
Interestingly, at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson asked at the legislative session “Why doesn’t the mayor focus on OCP, if that’s where the problem is, instead of doing a work around?”
The council should ask itself that same question. Why isn’t it focused on OCP?
It might also ask why it hasn’t flogged CFO Natwar Gandhi. By law, he’s responsible for providing the transparency the council seeks. It’s his job to keep each branch of government informed about money the city is receiving and how those funds are being spent. The CFO should have informed the council about the transfer of more than $86 million from DPR to the deputy mayor’s office; those funds subsequently went to DCHA.
The CFO has become a hoarder of data.
When I sought in September the names of agencies that may have been overspending their 2009 budgets, the CFO refused to provide requested documents. Apparently he didn’t give them to the council, either. And, Chairman Vincent C. Gray sent a letter this week asking for information on contract spending he should already have.
According to CFO spokesman David Umansky the office gives the council “quarterly reports on revenues and an analyses of what they mean to the city.”
What about spending? Finance officials in each agency should provide monthly reports to the executive and the chairmen of the relevant council committees. But, Thomas’ legislation doesn’t make that demand.
So, if the council isn’t fixing the fundamentals, what’s it doing?
Good question.
Jonetta Rose Barras, hosts of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics with Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
