District taxpayers may have thought they were protected against waste, fraud and abuse by an aggressive inspector general. But Charles J. Willoughby has failed to investigate many complaints, often choosing to refer them for consideration to the same agencies accused of violating local laws, rules and regulations. In 2010, the IG received 610 complaints, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act. Willoughby referred 308 of them back to agency directors; in 198 of those cases, he didn’t even require managers to provide any follow-up report.
Willoughby’s process of allowing possible offenders to investigate themselves is troublesome and could have a chilling effect: Employees understandably could interpret the system as favoring agency directors and lose confidence in reporting waste, fraud or abuse. Residents, realizing the IG’s deep-sixing proclivities, could see the process as totally meaningless.
They might be right.
Willoughby’s handling of complaints surrounding a project at Unity Park in Adams Morgan serves as testimony.
On Oct. 21, 2010, the IG received an email requesting an investigation of the project, which the Office of Latino Affairs started two years earlier, ostensibly to curb illegal vending near Sacred Heart Church on 16th Street Northwest. Interestingly, OLA’s solution — creating a formal vendors market at the park — allowed participants to circumvent local laws and deprived the city of thousands of tax dollars, according to government documents and interviews with District officials and civic leaders.
The Oct. 21 complaint also asked the IG to conduct a financial audit. OLA had pulled in the International Migrants’ Development Fund to operate the vending market, giving it $60,000 over two years, according to government documents. There had been allegations IMDF misspent that money and strong-armed vendors into paying as much as $125 a week to participate in the program. If those accusations proved true, more than $50,000 in additional money had been collected.
Willoughby sent a letter dated Dec. 6 to OLA. The new director, Roxana Olivas, replied on Feb. 1, 2011. By then the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, after receiving a $55,000 grant, was managing the vendors market. It too was charging participants an additional fee, according to government documents.
On Feb. 18, the IG received another complaint concerning the transfer of Unity Park from the Department of Parks and Recreation to OLA’s control.
The allegations and criticisms were serious, suggesting laws had been broken and public money misused. In other words, there may have been waste, fraud and abuse.
Willoughby did nothing. By March 17, he had closed both files. Despite a budget of $18 million and having a staff of 100 at his disposal, he never conducted a formal investigation of activities at the park. He never conducted an audit. Far worse, the IG never even interviewed the individuals who had filed the complaints.
While the Unity Park project and the roughly $150,000 involved are arguably minuscule within the context of the city’s $10 billion budget, the cumulative effect of these kinds of problems when left unaddressed can be enormous. Not only does the money add up, but the wear and tear on people’s faith in the system adds up too. We only get the kind of government we insist upon — it is time we insisted on some real follow-through from the inspector general.
On Wednesday: Part 2
Jonetta Rose Barras’ column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
