{"id":345337,"date":"2026-09-13T01:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T01:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345337\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T01:12:10","slug":"samuels-promises-accountability-in-doe-procurement-while-under-investigation-for-no-bid-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345337\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuels promises ‘accountability’ in DOE procurement while under investigation for no-bid contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scandal-plagued NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels promised a total overhaul of the city\u2019s dysfunctional procurement system \u2014 without mentioning that he remains under investigation over alleged procurement violations of his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a taxpayer, I believe that every dollar spent in our schools should be transparent, accountable, and in the service of student success,\u201d Samuels \u2014 who is accused of skirting the city\u2019s competitive bidding rules \u2014 said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Samuels, flanked by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a press conference at Mama Tingo\u2019s Childcare Center in Washington Heights, joined Hizzoner in pledging that the reforms will save city taxpayers more than $100 million over this fiscal year and next by cutting red tape in the procurement process and modernizing contract software.<\/p>\n

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced procurement reform at a press conference Thursday. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

Critics, however, blasted Samuels\u2019 promise of transparency and accountability as rank hypocrisy given the ongoing probe into his own conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cChancellor Samuels announcing procurement reform is akin to Jack the Ripper announcing a public safety initiative, the announcement makes one thing clear: he expects the department to adhere to a standard he does not apply to himself,\u201d a City Hall insider said. <\/p>\n

Samuels was exposed by The Post for signing a $180,000 no-bid contract<\/a> with a vendor that had not been approved by the Department of Education and splitting payments between two companies to evade city oversight when he was District 3 superintendent in 2023.<\/p>\n

A neatly identical contract was signed by his then-deputy superintendent, Mariela Graham, and the same vendor, Sean Kreyling, the following year. <\/p>\n

An investigation by the Special Commissioner of Inquiry Anastasia Coleman was launched<\/a> after it was reported that the Samuels-contracted vendor unknowingly sent a teacher who was banned from teaching in DOE schools due to sexual misconduct into two Manhattan schools for months.<\/p>\n

A 2025 SCI report pinned all the blame on Graham, and recommended she be fired and never work for the DOE again.<\/p>\n

Instead, Samuels gave her a cushy promotion to the DOE\u2019s senior executive director of strategy, a job that pays $225,571 a year.<\/p>\n

The SCI confirmed in June they were investigating Samuels, following The Post\u2019s bombshell reporting.<\/p>\n

The no-bid contracts were signed by Kreyco CEO Sean Kreyling. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mamdani allegedly stonewalled<\/a> City Council\u2019s attempts to review hundreds of DOE contracts totalling some $13 billion.<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin slammed Samuels and the DOE in a scathing July letter for a \u201cpattern of opacity, slow-walking and delay\u201d in responding to requests for the contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite repeated requests over several months, DOE has not produced these contracts, nor has it proposed a concrete timeline for doing so,\u201d Menin\u2019s office wrote.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Menin\u2019s office told The Post that City Hall has since delivered hundreds of contracts and they are now being analyzed. <\/p>\n

Menin previously blasted Mamdani for stonewalling on requests for DOE contracts. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

The proposed $100 million in savings is a drop in the bucket, critics say, compared with the enormous sums lost through procurement violations and other contracting failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bit much coming from someone who personally threw his deputy under the bus, destroyed her reputation and career, and walked away with an unblemished record,\u201d a DOE Insider said<\/p>\n

A December 2025 SCI report found that check-splitting and other inappropriate procurement practices drove up the price the DOE spent on outside vendors to $386 million in 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cViolations of procurement rules often resulted in financial losses to the DOE, led to state
and federal prosecutions, and\/or prevented the DOE from working with the most qualified vendors
at fair market prices,\u201d the report stated. <\/p>\n

\u201cI regret the lapses in policy and procedures that took place while I was the superintendent, and the actions in question were all meant to [be] in the pursuit of educational opportunity,\u201d Samuels testified to City Council in June. <\/p>\n

Samuels, via the DOE, declined to comment on the hypocrisy criticisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scandal-plagued NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels promised a total overhaul of the city\u2019s dysfunctional procurement system \u2014 without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4337,41579,57,9,56,63,65,64,58,82],"class_list":["post-345337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-department-of-education","tag-kamar-samuels","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}