OT: Fedgov Buries Their Mistakes
Tom Beckner
http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002jcq
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/03/08/scholarship.mixup.ap/index.html
March 8, 2000 Web posted at: 1:06 PM EST (1806 GMT)
(AP) -- Thirty-nine college students were mistakenly told they
won government fellowships, but the U.S. Education Department has
decided to give them the money anyway, an official said
Wednesday.
The mistake in the Jacob K. Javits Fellowships could cost the
government up to $975,000, depending on how many accept the
offer. The fellowships pay for graduate study in the arts,
humanities and social sciences.
"We were working at first to find out what happened and why an
error occurred," said Erica Lepping, a department spokeswoman in
Washington. "After reviewing that, we came to the conclusion this
was the right thing to do."
In addition, students and educators said an amendment to the
Higher Education Act of 1992 bars the department from retracting
Javits fellowships after they are announced.
Individual awards range from $25,000 to $100,000. Congress
appropriated $10 million for the program for each of the 2000-01
and 2001-02 academic years, Lepping said.
The 39 mistaken winners actually were alternates. The Chronicle
of Higher Education, which first reported the story, said 138
other students were the real winners. The winners and alternates
were chosen from among some 13,000 applicants, Lepping said.
A private contractor, DTI Associates in Arlington, Virginia, was
hired to mail award notices to the winners.
Lepping said the mistaken notifications sent to the alternates
were discovered when one alternate called the Education
Department with a question.
She didn't immediately know if the real winners were notified.
The Education Department is searching for a way to fund the
unexpected outlay, Lepping said. It was also looking into
possible legal action against the contractor, she said.
There was no comment from DTI Associates. Company officials did
not immediately return a call Wednesday.
End quoted material.
Guy in the mailroom sends out 39 wrong letters and fedgov backs
him up by shelling out "up to" 975 large.
I guess The Education Department is fedgov, who else besides drug
dealers have that kind of money? Whatever, fedgov or drug
dealers, these guys have a big heart. (That legal action
reference is just chain rattling. Fedgov spent 40 million
investigating a lawyer and all they got was a 10 thousand dollar
fine on a perjury beef. He didn't even get disbarred or lose his
job.)
Is this a great country or what?
Tom Beckner