Officials’ Judgment, Oversight Faulted in PR Deal With Pundit

The U.S. Department of Education made poor management decisions and wasted taxpayer dollars, but did not violate contract law or ethics guidelines, in arranging to pay the commentator Armstrong Williams to help promote the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the agency’s internal watchdog concludes in a report released April 15.

Education Department Inspector General John P. Higgins Jr. writes that the department “exercised poor judgment and oversight” in the matter. Though Mr. Williams received two government contracts worth a total of more than $250,000, the work done “most likely did not reach its intended audience,” Mr. Higgins’ report says, and the advertisements “that were produced under the work requests appear to be of poor quality, and the department has no assurance the ads received the airtime for which it paid.” To date, Mr. Williams has been paid $188,500, according to the report.

The inspector general writes that “[o]verall, we noted no violations of pertinent contract law and found no evidence of any ethical violations” in a May 2003 department contract with the New York City public relations firm Ketchum Inc. and in related work requests for Mr. Williams’ firm, the Washington-based Graham Williams Group. The department directed Ketchum to hire Mr. Williams’ firm to help with minority outreach in support of the No Child Left Behind law. That action by the department gave the appearance of circumventing procedures for awarding...