D.C.’s finance office is investigating why funds donated to help the District’s neediest school children paid for lavish meals for Superintendent Clifford Janey.
“This issue is currently under review and no comments [will be made] until the review is completed,” finance office spokeswoman Maryann Young wrotein an e-mail to The Examiner.
The finance office has frozen all payments out of the fund while the investigation is pending, schools’ lawyer Karen Jones Herbert said.
The investigation began after The Examiner reported that Janey had been reimbursed for thousands of dollars at D.C. restaurants from the Interest Investment fund.
The fund is made up of the interest earned on money given to the schools by private donors. The donations are supposed to help the neediest children in D.C.’s failing schools, sources said.
Janey is the highest paid official in local government. His $250,000 contract gives him $10,000 per year for meals and expenses.
Yet records obtained by The Examiner show that he was reimbursed for meals with union and city officials at such restaurants as the Palm, the Hyatt Regency and the Prime Rib. He dined with, among others, incoming District Council Chair Vincent Gray, mayor-elect Adrian Fenty and Chief Finance Officer Natwar Gandhi, the records show.
D.C. schools spokeswoman John White declined comment Tuesday.
The Examiner learned about the finance office’s internal review because the investigation has apparently blocked the release of data requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Examiner asked the schools for a complete accounting of all payments out of the Interest Investment Fund.
The legal deadline for the request has lapsed, but Herbert, the schools’ lawyer, said that the information could not be released while the investigation was open.
