Georgetown doesn’t have many fraternities, and that means students miss out on regular parts of college life at other schools like hazing, learning the Greek alphabet, and having a friend named Deke. After the outrageous revelations from D.C.’s City Council that Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration illegally gave tens of millions of dollars in contracts to the mayor’s fraternity brothers, without oversight, it looks like Hoyas are missing out on another part of Greek life: nepotism.
At a Council hearing on Friday, Councilmembers announced that they had discovered a park contracting scheme designed to circumvent Council oversight of all contracts over $1 million. Instead of gaining this required Council approval, the District of Columbia Housing Authority unilaterally approved at least $120 million in contracts for work on city parks. Some of the money was handed to the mayor’s fraternity brother, Omar Karim, who sub-contracted the money to others, including another fraternity brother.
There were other problems: a $10 million contract description only took up one paragraph, and other contractors who were rejected for the money say the bidding process was opaque and officials were unresponsive.
As of now, no corruption has been proven. The procurement policy circumvented in the contract process is obscure to most Washingtonians, and there is no evidence thus far that the contracted work will be done poorly or not at all. Fenty’s supporters argue that this arrangement actually helps citizens, because it gets work done quicker. At Friday’s hearing, Washington City Paper reported, City Administrator Neil O. Albert used that explanation when pressed on why city government would use such a convoluted system to get parks built.
But even if these particular contracts were on the up-and-up, the illegal arrangement sets a dangerous precedent. The City Council is meant to evaluate contracts over $1 million to avoid corruption and waste, in order to avoid contract abuse at the levels of the Marion Barry administration. A return to those days will mean lower-quality facilities and services for all District residents.
Fraternities may be good for a lot of things, but using fraternal connections to award government money is no way to spend government funds. The City Council should launch a full investigation of the park contracting scandal, and Mayor Fenty should explain what role he had in the distribution of contracts to his friends.
