D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee on Wednesday said that staffing and procedural changes are being made in the wake of revelations that the school system unlawfully awarded $270 million worth of contracts, but some lawmakers continued to express doubts as to whether proper accountability would be meted out.
Speaking during a D.C. Council hearing, Ferebee apologized for what he called the “unacceptable noncompliance” that had taken place within DCPS, where some 36 contracts had been awarded over the last three years without the required council review and approval that comes with any city contract worth more than $1 million.
He told lawmakers that an internal review and reorganization is being conducted to better understand why the contracts were not properly submitted to the council and to build better safeguards to prevent it from happening again. He also said he is creating a new Office of Fiscal Strategy to oversee all contracts and procurement within the school system — which has a $1.8 billion annual budget — and chose Patrick Ashley, a former senior director of D.C. Health during the pandemic, to lead it.
“I take this issue very seriously and we are addressing the underlying issues to prevent any recurrence,” he said.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Martin Austermuhle over at DCIST
