Opinion ID: 2324757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Greenlee voucher.

Text: Marcia Greenlee, Ph.D., was an independent contractor for the DCPL who specialized in historic preservation and black history. Ms. Okyiri discovered that, over the past several years, Dr. Greenlee had received several sizable consulting contracts from the DCPL on a non-competitive basis. The last of these contracts, which had been agreed to in June 1991, provided that Dr. Greenlee would receive compensation at the rate of $300 per day, and total remuneration not to exceed $21,000, as a consultant on oral history. Ms. Okyiri also noticed that, unlike other contractors, Dr. Greenlee had an office in the main library, worked regular government hours, used DCPL supplies, attended executive meetings, and frequently had lunch with Dr. Franklin and with Dr. Franklin's then executive assistant (and now successor), appellant Mary E. Raphael. Moreover, Dr. Franklin had requested Dr. Greenlee to coordinate the Martin Luther King gala, an event which was funded by the Library Foundation, a private local organization, and Ms. Okyiri was concerned that DCPL funds might have been used for the gala. All of these circumstances made Ms. Okyiri increasingly suspicious of the relationship between DCPL and Dr. Greenlee and about the possibility that the DCPL was being charged for work Dr. Greenlee was doing for the ALA on the gala. On December 8, 1992, Dr. Greenlee submitted an invoice requesting that the DCPL pay her $3600 for services rendered on her consulting contract. Dr. Greenlee included with her invoice a statement detailing the services that she had performed during the billing period, but no supporting documentation. Ms. Raphael, the contract administrator, approved the invoice and forwarded a voucher to Ms. Okyiri to sign as certification officer. Ms. Okyiri had previously approved invoices submitted by Dr. Greenlee. On this occasion, however, she declined to sign the voucher because I knew it was a duplicate bill. I felt it. I could tell. I could smell it. A member of Ms. Okyiri's staff, acting at Ms. Okyiri's direction, telephoned Dr. Greenlee and advised her that payment would be delayed until Ms. Okyiri could inspect the work product reflected in the billing. Dr. Greenlee responded to this telephone call by notifying Ms. Raphael that I have made no response to Ms. Okyiri, nor do I intend to. Instead, Dr. Greenlee asked Ms. Raphael to handle the matter. Ms. Okyiri and Ms. Raphael were not on speaking terms at the time, and the problem was brought to Dr. Franklin's attention. Dr. Franklin met with Ms. Okyiri and orally ordered her to approve Dr. Greenlee's voucher. Indeed, according to a memorandum written by Ms. Okyiri which was credited by the ALJ, Dr. Franklin instructed her that so long as Ms. Raphael, the contracting officer, [3] was satisfied with the invoice, no supporting documentation is necessary and no questions should be asked. Ms. Okyiri persisted in her refusal to sign the voucher. In a memorandum dated February 17, 1993, she directed Dr. Franklin's attention to Mayor's Memorandum 83-68, which provides that before approving a payment, certification officers shall, inter alia: Confirm that the payment is permitted by law and is in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement; . . . Ascertain that the payment to be made is not a duplication; . . . and Ascertain that the proper forms of documentation (invoices, bills, statements of account) were used to support the payment.. . . The memorandum further states that certification officers will: (1) Be held responsible for the existence and correctness of the facts recorded in the certificate or otherwise stated in the voucher or its supporting papers, including the correctness of computations on such voucher, and for the legality of the proposed payment under the appropriation or fund involved[; and] (2) Be held responsible for and required to make good to the United States or to the District of Columbia the amount of any illegal, improper, or incorrect payment resulting from any false, erroneous, or misleading certification made by him as well as for any payment prohibited by law or which did not represent a legal obligation under the appropriation or fund involved. [4] Ms. Okyiri offered to approve Dr. Greenlee's voucher if Dr. Franklin advised her in writing that the Mayor's Memorandum should be ignored. Dr. Franklin responded five days later with a memorandum in which he did not address the Mayor's directive but reiterated his insistence that Ms. Okyiri sign the voucher if Ms. Raphael told her that it was acceptable. Ms. Okyiri was ordered to approve the voucher no later than February 26, 1993. On March 16, 1993, the DCPL's legal counsel issued an opinion in which he concluded that the voucher had been sufficiently documented and that the agency was therefore obliged to pay Dr. Greenlee's invoices. This opinion, however, was never brought to Ms. Okyiri's attention. Two weeks later, in a letter to Ms. Raphael, Dr. Greenlee stated that payment for her services was long overdue, and that if the matter was not resolved promptly, Dr. Greenlee would be compelled to explore other means of redress at my disposal. Ms. Okyiri nevertheless persisted in refusing to certify the invoice for payment. This refusal was the basis for the subsequent charge of insubordination in the adverse action instituted against her.