In summer 2008, Kundra found an outside company to hire subcontractors for the District. By doing this, he hoped it would free District employees from having to handle more paperwork, get expert subcontractors on the job faster and limit interaction between subcontractors and city managers, which had created relationships described by city employees and consultants to The Washington Post as “rampant cronyism.” The new system would be more transparent and efficient in doling out $75 million-a-year in technology contracts, according to Kundra. "The best disinfectant is more sunshine," Kundra told the D.C. City Council.
Kundra left his D.C. post in February 2009 to join the Obama administration. Less than a month later, the FBI raided Kundra’s former offices. Federal authorities said former technology security director Yusuf Acar, and the owner of a subcontracting company, Sushil Bansal, attempted to steal money through the creation of “ghost employees” and product invoices that were never delivered. The two men, with the help of a former technology employee working in the finance office, allegedly defrauded the District of $500,000, according to the affidavit.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Kundra was not a suspect or under investigation.
No word on this since this post in January (and no news in it from that time in any event). FBI still investigating? Investigation dropped? Whole thing plastered over? Who knows?
And what is the status of DC governments move to cloud computing? LA and Orlando are cited as success stories. But bloated DC government more closely resembled the entrenched feds. Would be nice to know that all is still going well there and how those savings are coming.
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