February 4, 2013
WASHINGTON: Natwar (' Nat' ) Gandhi, an Indian-American money manager who turned around the finances of Washington DC, arguably the world's most powerful city but also a profligate one till he took over, resigned as its chief financial officer on Friday citing personal reasons.
February 4, 2013
WASHINGTON: Natwar (' Nat' ) Gandhi, an Indian-American money manager who turned around the finances of Washington DC, arguably the world's most powerful city but also a profligate one till he took over, resigned as its chief financial officer on Friday citing personal reasons.
Gandhi, 72, served two five-year terms as Washington DC's CFO and had just received a third five-year term amid praise for guiding the city from being broke during the 1990s to a $417 million surplus and $1.5 billion in budget reserves at last count. But buffeted by scandals in tax collection and leakages despite high regard for his personal probity, Gandhi quit after serving less than a year of his third term.
The local media also hinted at a budding romance for the grandfatherly poet-manager — he has several books of verse in Gujarati — who was widowed in 2011.
"Though I look forward to the next chapter in my life, this was not an easy decision ," Gandhi wrote in his resignation letter on Friday to mayor Vincent Gray.
The great city's finances were anything but great when Gandhi took over in 2001. Washington DC had spent itself into a half billion dollar deficit by the mid-1990 s, leading Congress to take control of the city till 2001. In part, this was because of the porous nature of the city. It could not collect taxes from more than half of its workforce and almost half of its real estate owners, including the White House, the World Bank, and scores of embassies. Each day, some half million wealthy suburbanites pour into the city from the suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, but they pay no taxes although they use city's public services, leaving the city's poorer residents to foot the bill.
Enter the bald, bespectacled Gandhi, whose resemblance to the Mahatma in part resulted in his playing an eponymous role in a theater production last year. He began by simply cutting out all extravaganzas, quickly earning the nickname Dr No, because he said "No" to everything. He then expanded tax collection, inviting squeals of protests from residents who now charge that he shored up finances by underestimating revenue.
But scandals relating to collection and leakages began to surface during his second term. A major one erupted in 2007 when tax office employee Harriette Walters was found to have embezzled $48 million from the city. She was convicted and earned a 17-year prison term. A $38 million lottery city contract awarded to the Greek gaming giant Intralot is also under investigation.
Courtesy: ET
