4 Education Officials Put on Leave After Audit

Four state education officials who led a major effort to improve high school instruction in California have been relieved of their duties after an internal audit found financial irregularities affecting $2.3 million in contracts.

Department of Education general counsel Joe Symkowick confirmed Friday that four officials who formerly operated the agency’s high school education office have been put on leave until a hearing can be held to determine if they should be fired.

He said the decision to remove them from their jobs was prompted by a 117-page internal audit that examined $2.3 million in contracts and grants their office had awarded and administered over a seven-year period beginning in 1988.

The audit accused the officials of manipulating the contracting process so that contract money could be spent to give them perks that were normally not allowed by the state.

The audit said that on numerous occasions contractors were encouraged to pick up the tab for meals and lodging for the staff of the high school education office and other education officials even though state regulations prohibited it.

In 1991, the audit said, the Achievement Council, a nonprofit group that had been given a contract to improve student performance, paid $666 from its $7,000 grant for a staff training session held on the Delta King, a waterfront restaurant in Sacramento.

Included in its costs, the audit said, was $442 for beverages, lunch and service charges, even though the staff was not entitled to have those costs paid by the state.

The staff “violated state and department requirements and practices, and, for most contracts and grants examined, inappropriately directed program activities and spent contract and grant funds without property authority,” the audit found.

Symkowick declined to identify the officials who have been relieved of their duties, but The Times has learned independently that they are Barbara G. Brandes, the former administrator of the office, and three of her aides--Jeffrey Cohen, Paul N. Peters and Bill Vasey.