D.C. Councilman Marion Barry, who is under federal investigation for his alleged abuse of the city’s contract and earmark processes, has accused a fellow councilman of violating D.C.’s rules regarding earmarks.
Barry on Thursday moved to block a contract supported by Councilman David Catania that would award George Washington University $3.5 million for its work in association with the city’s department of health care finance and its health insurance programs.
“This is not about George Washington University,” Barry said. “It’s about Mr. David Catania and his inappropriate actions.”
The Ward 8 councilman said Catania, at-large, had “heavily influenced” the council’s decision to award funds for a fifth consecutive year to George Washington University, and had violated the “Earmark Prohibition Act of 2010.”
While the “prohibition act” Barry cites does not exist, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray did in 2009 adopt new rules prohibiting organizations from receiving earmarked funds in consecutive years.
However, the funds awarded to George Washington in fiscal 2010 were part of a “sole-source” contract for services, not an earmark. Sole-source contracts are not open to bids from other providers.
Barry said the sole-source contract was Catania’s “clever attempt to manipulate the contracting process.” Barry did not dispute that the school was deserving of the contract.
The George Washington contract “is nothing more or less than an earmark masquerading as a sole-source contract,” Barry said, arguing that the contract should have been open to other bidders.
While Catania chose not to respond to Barry’s accusations, a statement issued by Catania’s chief of staff, Benjamin Young, called the allegations “ridiculous” and a “sadly predictable attempt to deflect attention” from Barry’s own transgressions.
Barry was censured and stripped of a committee chairmanship last month when a city investigation found that the former mayor had benefited financially after he improperly awarded a city contract and earmarks to friends and a former girlfriend.
That investigation was spurred in part by a formal request made to the city’s inspector general’s office by Catania in July 2009.
On Thursday, Barry offered an unprovoked response to critics and skeptics who would question the former mayor’s motives in attacking Catania.
Said Barry: “I have nothing but integrity.”
