7 corruption questions MCPS won't answer

The heads of the Seven Locks Elementary School demolition/replacement project are touchy about PTA members' questions about corruption.

While professing to answer all written questions about the project, with ready answers about construction costs, they are strangely silent when parents ask how much taxpayer money will be lost to corruption in the demolition of Seven Locks Elementary School and the construction of the triple-sized "replacement" school on Kendale Road in Potomac.

Here are the seven sets of questions that the MCPS officials - James Tokar and Richard G. Hawes - refuse to answer:

1. In your professional opinion as a project manager, what percentage of costs in the construction of a Montgomery County Public School is typically lost to kickbacks, graft, waste, and other forms of corruption?
2. What procedures and practices do you and the MCPS Division of Construction have in place to ensure that school construction projects are free of kickbacks, graft, waste, and other forms of corruption?
3. What specific instances can you cite over the past 15 years where you and the MCPS Division of Construction have suspected – and acted upon – kickbacks, graft, waste, and other forms of corruption in the construction of county schools?
4. How many of those cases did you and the MCPS Division of Construction refer to county, state, or federal officials for criminal action? Which cases were they? Which officials did you urge take criminal action, and under what circumstances?
5. How many of the cases that you and the MCPS Division of Construction urged be prosecuted resulted in criminal convictions? Which cases were they?
6. If neither you nor the MCPS Division of Construction have suspected and acted upon cases of suspected or alleged corruption in the construction of county public schools, would you please explain why you and the Division believe that no corruption exists in the construction industry and in public politics, or why you and the Division have not been diligent in safeguarding public school construction from corruption and organized crime?
7. Do you and the MCPS Division of Construction believe that an outside prosecutor should be appointed to investigate suspected corruption in the construction of county public schools? If not, please explain.

Try asking them yourself!
Jim Tokar's e-mail address is: james_r_tokar@mcpsmd.org.
Richard Hawes' address is: Richard_G_Hawes@mcpsmd.org.