examiNation dc: How do you think Natwar Gandhi has handled the tax scandal?

The financial control board and the congress created a situation where the FOX GUARDED THE HEN HOUSE. There was no oversight of the CFO's operations because they were given deference. Since the control board era school test scores declined and agency accountability was lacking after numerous restructuring. Congress, Control Board, CFO, both Mayors, council and agency heads bear responsibility for the lack of financial controls, accountability, and leadership rightfully due to VOTERS & TRUE RESIDENTS of DC. All Gandhi's top managers and aids fell on the job. How can not even one aid see that there was a serious check and balance issue? They were too busy touting their management expertise??? Seems some may have purchased Fool's Gold. How about exercising some wisdom?

Who mentioned the bond rating? That is not something that stands in support of Gandhi. Confidance is something that plays into that rating...he cannot hold it after this point. See a dip regardless of he is at the helm or not. Fenty better be fielding resume for someone who is the whole package, management, forensic accounting, and organizational restructuring.

Let me define this issue for you. This is not the first issue Ghandi has dropped the ball on. It is the biggest and the direct link. He is just not top guy material. He doesn't generate the money so don't give him that credit. And obviously seeing that it is secure is not part of what he sees as his role. And with that attitude it invites corruption. Only 30 mil is his attitude, and for that he should be demoted if not straigth fired. But here is the skinny he fired Cheryl Hobbs Newman for something he too is guilty and as a standatd he should go. It is crazy that the mayor is pre-empting the investigation and offering Ghandi support prior to finding out all the intricacies of the mess up. For that it becomes a mayoral misstep.

Gandi has to go. I see this happening maybe in other agencies. Where you have very stong dominering employees who intimadate other empolyees who will inform. I am quite sure over the years some employees who would not go along were squezzed out. I see this happening even in agency I use to work for. They dont want to know. ANd why is that because many people probably benefited and those who tried to bring it up were penalized.

Ganhi must go. There was another story a while back about a scandal involving a company called Geneva or somethin like that. Sounded like Ghandi fell asleep on that one too...great job gandhi, you rock! um, not really. clown.

Fired, let go, resign, whatever term makes you feel better but Ghandi needs to go. It was his job to make sure adequate internal controls were in place throughout the City's financial interactions period. There should have been standard policies and procedures in place and implemented in each DC Gov Agency period. If this was a private firm employees on these same levels would have never been able to pull this off for so long. Why are we praising Ghandi by saying he did such a great job. He did okay not GREAT. Great would have made it far more difficult for something like this to happen. DC has lots of money coming in now and holding individuals in these top positions accountable is a must. How is it the city can spend $150m on software that's not working properly but can't invest in our schools to better educate our children? I am a native Washingtonian and I pay income and property taxes and I'm very angry and hurt. Someone has to take responsibility let's start with G

I agree Gandhi has been great for te city;does how good you are in one area excuse the magnitude of mismanagement being exposed at OTR. Does the good outweigh the bad? For folks who want to give away tax dollars to developers, team owners, etc. the anwser is probably Yes for as Gandhi stated $20 Mil would be insignificant to that group;to us hard working folks who are good steward our finances and feel taxed out the answer is probably No for $20 Mil is very significant to us W2 workers. It will be a diffcult decision to make, however, keeping Gandhi will be like the same old lip service the citizens of DC is used to getting when it comes to accountability.Gandhi changed oversight approval for tax refunds from $10,000 to $200,000 or was it $100,00 that was his answer;bottom line over $20,000,000 was stolen.I love my hometown so much and I don't want to relive the 'Barry' stuff but sure is feeling a lot like it. After ALL the oversight who is going to have the guts to delare A NEW D

How can someone who is incharge of millions of dollars be able to write checks to themself? What kind of check a balance system do the DC government have? This kind of scandal may have been happening even before 2001, someone needs to go back and re-audit the last 25 years. I may not know much about accounting but I do certainly know who I write my checks too, and certainly do not let my wife write out checks without knowing who she's writing the check too. Gandi, you must have been sleeping on the job, it's time to go.

Gandhi is the best guy for the CFO position. One must look at all the good he has done for this City. Should we be critical of him for this lapse, Absolutely! But, we also need to put things in perspective. Our credit rating is the best it has ever been which saves us hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments. This was a primitive scam that finally got caught. Even with all the internal controls in place, if someone wants to beat the system from the inside, theres always that chance of happening. Gandhi is doing the right thing by cleaning house and putting more controls in. Be critical of him, but all of this resignation talk is too much. Lets support him to get the right controls in place and make DC an even better place to live.

Fenty came from the same city council that ruled during the major period of the thefts. It's quite simple really. They were in charge and they were warned of problems years ago. They deliberately did nothing. It took an effort on their part to ignore those warnings. They should all resign. Next time DC liberals would be wise to vote for qualified people.

I don't believe this is a silly poll. The question raised as to why Fenty is in this poll? Well that is because I believe most of us expected him to force his buddy/pal Ghandi to resign. This shows VERY POOR management oversight during his tenure at OTR. I think it is very hypocritical of them all to speak as if this was such a sophisticated scam that ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE within the agency overlooked except for the audit department. And the nerve of Fenty to say that he has absolute faith and confidence in Ghandi after ALL THIS is absurd. So this is why Fenty is in this poll. He appointed Ghandi and he should have done the right thing by asking him to resign FIRST! No one and I mean NO ONE within OTR was doing their job and that is the bottom line. It seems like everyone has just been over there power trippin with their egotistical job titles!! This is so shameful.......

I agree that they will try to "scapegoat" Gandhi simply becaue he is viewed as a "foreigner". It's kinda like being a HUNCHback these days. LOL

Why is Fenty even in the poll? Does someone at the Examiner have it in for him? He's new to office, he doesn't have anything to do with this. From what I see, he's only brought much needed integrity to his office. Sometimes these polls make no sense.

Has everyone forgotten the role of Congress and the Control Board in creating this mess, under the guise of saving DC residents from themselves? First Congress created the Control Board, removing control of DC finances from the authority of the Mayor and Council, the Control Board then selected Anthony Williams and later Ghandi to be the on-site saviors. It seems to me they all let the City down.

I feel that Ghandi and all the upper management should be fired. There is no way this could have gone on for years and nobody caught on. I think that management heard rumors but never investigated. I think that money was loaned to upper management. I think that once every stone is turned that 50 or better of the staff in that office knew about the theft. I am a government employee and I know how the rumor mill is in government agencies.

Note...Ms. Newman's educational background. Is there any accounting in it? As Deputy CFO, would not that be minimal requirement? Was she qualified for the position Ghandi placed her in?

For Dr. Gandhi to demand Ms. Newman's resignation, without also offering his own, for failing to do what he himself now appears to have failed to do, represents the heights of hypocrisy. And then for unnamed administration officials to attempt to further discredit Ms. Newman's name in an attempt to shift the blame to her is also highly dishonorable but quite typical of some of the tie wearing thugs running DC government.

First that is a silly poll. Fenty did not have anything to do with this did he? He JUST became mayor. rephrase the poll.

If the Internal Security Division of the Office of Integrity and Oversight is tasked to conduct proactive integrity probes of at-risk areas of agencies throughout the CFO cluster, what were they probing while this scam was going on?

The problemo my man is thatif we serv ghandi for turkey than we won't have an able person guide us through the maze...he probably knows how harriet operated and where all her bodies are buried, or he can very quickly help authorities get to the bottom of the trimmings, but if we have to trot him than so be it. he'll find another table to have thanxgiving so he's not in any dilemma...i'm amazed he's still sticking his neck out and hasn't trotted out to the White House for Bush to spare his head and he move on to another 10-figure job. that part is easy...now someone pls pass the jelly!

if there was an office pool where Mother Harrieet routinely roped in people into her scheme and gave them money loand than this is much deeper a crisis than we thought and Gandhi must have been surely aloof if he never heard of Mother teresa in his department. I am sure he is clued into the grapevine and had contact with this woman, even in the elevator, perhaps. What were they doing? Exchanging pleasantries? someone needs to look into how many times she actually met Gandhi for whatever reason and whether she tried to bribe him or not? I am 100% sure she did, or tried anyways.

Gandhi was not born and brought up in this city. He is not a product of what's right or wrong with DC. But he will pay the price because he was from the very outset never considered a part of the hometeam because of his cultural roots. He will have to pay for that now. They were going to get him. You know who's next? Michelle Rhee, because she also does not fit the mould either. You have to be a certain race (read black or white) and be corrupt to withstand DC politics. No room for honest men here. Just ask Barry and he will tell you.

I think he did what he could but his best wasn't good enough...suddenly the Amtrak job sounds attractive. I'd grab it.