The majority of contractors hired for the D.C. Public Schools’ $50 million summer blitz repair project, including Dynamic Corp., never received an evaluation of their prior government work, according to District officials. Excluding the summer blitz, these nonevaluated companies received more than $40 million in contracts between fiscal 2006 and 2007, according to the chief financial officer. The city’s failure to evaluate could mean wasted taxpayer dollars and a bunch of headaches. Consider Dynamic: The District filed a $13 million claim against the company, asserting it was responsible for the Georgetown Library fire. The corporation has said it is not responsible because it subcontracted the work.

If Dynamic was negligent, so were city officials: Between fiscal 2006 and 2007, the Maryland-based business received more than $7 million in city contracts, according to the Office of Contracting and Procurement. Dynamic worked for the departments of health, property management, public works, transportation, fire and emergency medical services, public schools and the library. None of those contracts was evaluated.Agency-based managers are required to file in the computerized “eval system” quantitative and qualitative assessments immediately at the completion of the work, according to David P. Gragan, chief of contracting and procurement. “It troubles me,” Gragan said during a recent interview about the lack of evaluations. “My guess is this isn’t unique.”

On July 11 — two months after the Georgetown fire — Allen Lew, the city’s facilities and modernization chief, approved a contract with Dynamic for $689,000. (This is in addition to the $3.3 million it received from DCPS in 2006 and 2007.)

Tony Robinson, spokesman for Lew, explains that when his boss was appointed, most of the contractors already had been selected by DCPS. Lew went with that preselected list, but in many cases rewrote the scope of work. Robinson says Lew’s imprimatur will be seen as he takes full control of capital projects.

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One month after the DCPS contract was awarded, on Aug. 22, the city filed its claim against Dynamic.

“Residents can be fully assured that the District will not accept poor work or poor management of any job from vendors doing business with the city,” Gragan said then. (Which clearly is an unvarnished misrepresentation.)

DCPS’ contracting officer, Kevin Green, didn’t respond to my request for an interview. Oddly, Green will lead an OCP roundtable on contracting for local businesses. (Don’t ask me to explain that.)

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wants the D.C. Council to approve an additional $120 million for a “stabilization” repair program of schools. Some of the contractors are likely to be those from the summer. Legislators should ask for evaluations before passing out more taxpayer dollars.

They also should ask why Lew is using multiple non-government project managers when the DCPS has contracting officers, and a $43 million Office of Facilities Management‹$26 million is earmarked for salaries, benefits and overtime.

Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for the “D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta.” Reach her at rosebook1@aol.com.