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The Barras Report
UDC MISSPENT FUNDS
Jul 17, 2008, 08:50
OFFICIALS at the University of the District of Columbia misspent more than $1.2 million and couldn’t account for millions more in grant funds provided by the D.C. Council for several training courses in satellite centers in communities hardest hit by high unemployment. They also didn’t spend nearly $3 million of the $7.3 million appropriated for fiscal years 2006 and 2007, according to a scathing report released this week by the Office of the Inspector General.
TBR wrote last October that large sums of money had been misspent at the university during former President William Pollard’s tenure. Stanley Jackson, interim president, requested an audit of the Workforce Development Program (WDP) soon after he took the helm and installed with the help of District’s Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi a new finance team. Jackson had discovered signs of the misappropriation but did not know the full extent of the problem, he told TBR. (Click the headline to read the full story.)
The IG found that officials paid staff out of the WDP grants, although those individuals had not performed any work for the program. In some instances, payments were made for duplicative services. Materials and supplies went unused and there were “questionable” contract payments.
For example: The university spent $306,903 for construction materials to build out workstations for training programs. During their visits, IG auditors found “the items had not been used, were covered in plastic and stacked in a common area. Further, we identified that the courses for which these items were procured had not yet been established.”
The Barras Report
The Main Event--State of Confusion in DC
Jul 13, 2008, 13:29
Editor’s Note: The publication date of the weekly edition of The Barras Report is changing. Starting next week, the Report will be sent to subscribers and posted on the jrbarras.com website every Wednesday. You are invited to read jonetta rose barras’ columns in The Washington Examiner each Monday (beginning July 21) and Thursday.
THE D.C. Council is perhaps confusing a whole bunch of residents. It proclaims that it’s providing rigorous oversight and watching how Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration is spending the public’s money for education reform. But earlier this month, it passed emergency legislation that opened the door for the Department of Parks and Recreation to spend more than $2 million on snacks—and not just for children but also the agency’s adult workers.
With salaries being paid to government bureaucrats, it’s hard to fathom that they can’t buy their own food. After all, foot long sandwiches at Subway sell for five dollars.
The city already runs a year-round feeding program for children and adults. That program is intensified during the summer and is operated by the State Office of Education.
MEANWHILE, Chairman Vincent C. Gray last week came out guns blazing after critical media reports, columns and editorials, including in The Washington Post and The Northwest Current, about his decision to delay approval of critical school renovation projects.
On Friday, Gray opened the Committee of the Whole’s roundtable on DCPS and the facilities modernization operation with a lengthy explanation for the meeting. He detailed issues he and the council have had with the way school construction contracts have been sent by the executive and the huge requests to reprogram money in this fiscal 2008 budget. Further, he took issue with those who ascribe political motives to his actions.
“I have spent my entire life working with children,” Gray said, “and my oversight of school modernization has nothing to do with politics. I repudiate any suggestion that it does.”
AND the council is poised to vote this Tuesday to extend deadline for organizations earmarked in the city 2009 budget to receive millions of dollars in grants to provide documentation that they are legitimate entities.
Shouldn’t members have known that before voting to give away the public’s money?
(Click the headline to read the full article.)
The Barras Report
DCPS SCORES ON THE RISE
Jul 8, 2008, 19:06
THE test scores of District Public Schools students have increased significantly. Inside the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty there was a tug over who would make the announcement and who should receive the credit for improvements, according to government sources.
The standardized test scores are up reportedly in reading and math at both the elementary and high school levels. The increases are between 4 and 10 percentage points, say government sources. DCPS students may have performed better than students at charter schools.
The State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education were poised to make the announcement of the improvements at a press conference on July 18th. But Fenty and Chancellor Michelle Rhee have commandeered that event; the announcement will be made tomorrow.
Some board members are angry that Fenty will take credit for the students' improved performance. They argue that former Superintendent Clifford Janey deserves the praise. They say that there should be a detailed analysis of how students at schools that have been closed and where principals were fired performed on the tests. Others say that this year’s improvements may simply be that students are getting used to the test.
Undoubtedly, State Superintendent of Education Deborah Gist and the state board will determine exactly what caused the dramatic hike in scores.
As for who gets the credit? That’s easy: The man who controls the microphone.
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The Barras Report
MARION BARRY'S OLDIES BUT GOODIES?
Jul 4, 2008, 09:47
HE’s consistent. You have to give that to Ward 8 D.C. Council member Marion Barry. He created the operational premise of the District government as employer of first, second and last resort. That was his song, and he’s sticking to it.
Cotton anyone?
(Click the headline to read the full story)
The Barras Report
AT LAST: A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER REMOVED FROM U.S. TERRORISTS LIST
Jul 1, 2008, 14:08
NO one can even believe it was allowed to go on this long. But the United States retained Nelson Mandela and members of the African National Congress on its terrorists list for more than three decades.
Even after the former president of South Africa was released from prison and went on to create a peaceful government, serving as an example of how to meet the enemy in peace, the United States government kept Mandela on the list.
Even after he won the Nobel Prize for Peace, Mandela and his ANC were required to secure permission in the form of a visa waiver in order to enter the United States. This indignity continued even through the administration of President Bill Clinton, despite his famous tour of Africa. (Click the headline to read the full story.)
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