The New York Times reports President Donald Trump’s love of no-bid contracts with connected contractors and flunkies have ruined another Washington, DC., project, this time at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Whistleblowers say renovations at the center “were rushed to meet the deadlines driven by the president’s desire to host official events at the center [and] federal contracting laws and regulations were ignored.”
In one case cited in Congressional internal documents a new bathroom floor in one of the center’s three presidential boxes was ordered torn up last year and redone after the White House complained about the beige color of the tiles.
“The 82-page submission to Congress was made under a law designed to protect federal employees who disclose allegations of wrongdoing from retaliation. The lawyers who sent it, David Seide and Dana Gold, work for a nonprofit that represents government whistle-blowers,” reports the Times. “ … Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which received the submission, wrote to the Kennedy Center on Thursday demanding information related to the renovations. Mr. Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the center’s board, said the submission raised ‘serious questions’ about whether public funds were being spent properly.”
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