‘Billions’ at risk: Ed. audit

THE CITY Education Department put billions at risk by ignoring its own rules against noncompetitive contracts, a scathing audit released Friday by Controller Scott Stringer charges.

In fiscal year 2016 the city school system handed out more than 500 contracts worth $2.7 billion without competitive bidding or required protections, Stringer’s investigation found.

That’s 64% of the agency’s total contract spending of more than $4 billion for that year.

“This investigation shows that DOE acts as though the rules don’t matter,” Stringer said. “We’re talking about billions of dollars spent without real oversight, without competitive bids, and without accountability.”

Stringer’s latest Education Department probe didn’t investigate how vendors ultimately delivered on the services and goods they promised.

But it found the $28 billion city agency didn’t bother to evaluate vendors or keep track of their work — or to register contracts with Stringer’s office for review.

But an official response to the probe written by DOE Chief Financial Officer Raymond Orlando questioned Stringer’s findings, saying they made “erroneous conclusions attributable either to a misunderstanding of the DOE’s procedures and/or a failure to collect information.”