Federal officials and private contractors grossly mismanaged a $384 million dollar anti-drug advertising contract, according to a report released Monday by the General Accounting Office (GAO). Members of Congress requested a detailed review of the contract, which was awarded as part of the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) “National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign,” after a previous GAO investigation revealed possible improprieties on the part of both the ONDCP and New York advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather.
The GAO reported Monday that timesheets for 28 Ogilvy & Mather employees had been altered to reflect more than 3,100 hours worth of work that may or may not have taken place. These hours were billed to the federal government. The GAO also revealed that: Ogilvy & Mather improperly billed full-time benefits to temporary employees; the firm did not have an appropriate accounting system for the ONDCP contract; the government did not seek to resolve obvious billing problems when they arose; and that federal officials failed to properly manage aspects of the actual contract award.
The GAO referred its findings to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“With so much of the $20 billion dollar federal drug war budget being allotted to third party contractors – many of whom have little or no government oversight – it’s not surprising to discover that this type of fraud and mismanagement is taking place,” said NORML Foundation Legal Director Donna Shea.
The GAO recommended a further review to determine how much money the federal government overpaid.
The White House’s much beleaguered “Anti-Drug Media Campaign” originally fell under Congressional fire last year when it was discovered that federal officials clandestinely sponsored network programming with anti-drug themes and influenced television scripts. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled last December – in response to a complaint filed by The NORML Foundation – that the practice violated Section 317 of the Federal Communications Act, which requires networks to identify the sponsors of any material for which they received financial compensation.
For more information, please contact Donna Shea, NORML Foundation Legal Director, at (202) 483-8751.
