D.C. council member calls for audit of schools’ foodservice contracts

Council member Mary M. Cheh (Ward 3) is requesting that the District auditor conduct an investigation into D.C. Public Schools’ performance and monitoring of its food service contracts, after the school system’s largest food vendor agreed to pay $19 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company overcharged the city and mismanaged the school meals programs.

The settlement agreement is the result of a whistleblower lawsuit waged by Jeffrey Mills, a former director of food services for D.C. Public Schools against Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, which has provided food services for schools in the District since 2008. The lawsuit led to an investigation and then a complaint from the D.C. attorney general’s office.

Officials from Chartwells, which is a subsidiary of Compass USA, denied any wrongdoing and said the settlement reflects a desire to resolve the issues and move forward. And school system officials said Friday they planned to continue their contract with Chartwells, which ends June 30, 2017, and said that any concerns about the prior contract have been addressed.

In a letter to D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson sent Monday, Cheh said she is “especially concerned” with the decision to extend the contract.

She said, “this large settlement is only the latest development in a long series of documented performance and management issues with this vendor and with DCPS’s management of its food service contracts.”

She asked for the auditor’s opinion as to whether Chartwell’s conduct should preclude the company from future contracts with the District, and she requested a review of the school system’s performance in monitoring and awarding food service contracts, as well as a determination as to whether the school system’s desired benefits of privatizing the food program, which was previously managed in-house, have been met.

“DCPS, it would appear, has continuously turned a blind eye to Compass /Chartwell’s poor performance and over-billing,” she said.

Cheh’s letter details a history of problems, dating to 2011 when the company was in danger of losing its contract because of poor performance. After the school system renewed the contract in July 2012, she said, nine council members wrote a letter stating concerns.