D.C. school and financial officials broke conflict-of-interest, procurement and federal spending rules to steer $6.2 million to a teachers’ training program, a new city audit has found.
The Teachers’ Institute was founded by former Horace Mann Elementary principal Sheila Ford just as she was retiring. It was designed to support D.C.’s beleaguered educators with intense, on-the-job training.
But a review by the D.C. inspector general found that Ford inappropriately pitched her services to D.C. officials while still an active employee. Other school officials ignored procurement laws by handing over millions of dollars without a contract before the institute had begun work. And the finance office authorized seven-figure payments despite not having a contract.
The finance office miscue may prove the most expensive, the audit concluded. City officials may have to return nearly $3 million to the federal government for violating a law that forbids state and local governments from using federal appropriations for anything other than the appropriated purpose.
Wednesday’s audit assigned most of the blame for the institute debacle to former Superintendent Cliff Janey, who approved the institute’s deal after a brief meeting with Ford and other then-D.C. school employees who were putting the institute together.
As first reported by The Examiner, the audit was requested by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who had received a letter from an institute employee concerned about the way the organization was spending its money.
Ford has described the whistle-blower’s motives as “pure jealousy” and said that she was only trying to help a moribund system. She couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.
Rhee declined comment.
Wednesday’s report followed other scathing reviews of city contracting practices. Last year, a scathing audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office warned the public that D.C. officials routinely ignored procurement rules in more than $1.9 billion worth of deals.
