Anti-drug campaign lambasted for mismanagement

Allegations of excessive costs, questionable billing practices and administrative mismanagement involving the advertising firm contracted for by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign were scrutinized by Congress at a hearing Wednesday.

The billion dollar campaign was funded by Congress in 1997 to address the increase in drug abuse among teenagers. Later, Ogilvy & Mather, a New York-based advertising agency, became the lead media campaign contractor for the project. Ogilvy's five-year contract totals up to $175 million annually.

Earlier this year, rumors of inflated labor costs and over-billing promped members of the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources to ask for an investigation of Ogilvy's contract.

"Some in the administration have attempted to thwart the Congressional hearing process, attack the General Accounting Office investigative staff and block the proper review of very significant problems of an important federal program," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said in a written statement, describing the drug program as "far too important for even one dollar to be wasted or misspent."

According to written testimony from Robert Hast, the General Accounting Office's director of Special Investigations, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) hired a consultant to study the Ogilvy contract after the investigation was launched.

According to Hast, the consultant found Ogilvy's staffing levels "excessive," its labor mix "overly top heavy" and salaries "extraordinarily high."

ONDCP Director Barry McCaffrey knew about the fraud allegations, Hast said. He went on to say that McCaffrey ordered an audit, but later denied any knowledge of the accusations until presented with an agency memo detailing the accusations with written notes from him about an external audit.

"Has ONDCP been negligent in its administration of the contract?," Mica asked. "Is the public being gouged?"

Another witness, Jane Twyon, president of Worldwide Media Directors, an advertising and media consulting firm hired by ONDCP to review Ogilvy's contract, said in her written testimony that the ONDCP did not mismanage the contract and that she did not "see any deliquency from any party on costs."

"I believe that Ogilvy is an excellent agency and that they have done a great job on this assignment," said Twyon, who was brought in by ONDCP to study the Ogilvy contract. "I see no fault with Ogilvy or the ONDCP ... I hope that my report is not used to derail a good relationship and the excellent work from Ogilvy."