Cabinet Officer's Veracity Faces a Test

HUD Inspector General to Look at Jackson's Contract Story and Recantation

The inspector general at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating an episode in which HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson bragged that he yanked a federal contract for political reasons and then changed his story and said he made the whole thing up.

"We have received a number of complaints from the public as well as from members of Congress," Michael Zerega, spokesman for HUD Inspector General Kenneth M. Donohue, said yesterday. "We are reviewing this matter and will look to the facts and any applicable law or requirements." There is no timetable for the inquiry, Zerega said.

HUD spokesman Jerry Brown said Jackson and the department "are fully cooperating with the investigation."

In an April 28 appearance in Dallas, Jackson regaled a minority business group with a story of how a minority-owned publisher had landed a contract with HUD after 10 years of trying, only to have Jackson strip it from him after the man told the secretary that he did not like President Bush.

"I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary,' " Jackson said, according to an account in the Dallas Business Journal. "He didn't get the contract."

On Wednesday, Jackson apologized, saying he had fabricated the story and expressing "deep regret" for doing so. "During my tenure, no contract has ever been awarded, rejected or rescinded due to the personal or political beliefs of the recipient," he said.

HUD spokeswoman Dustee Tucker said Wednesday that Jackson was merely demonstrating "how politics works in D.C."

Calling the episode politically stupid and legally questionable, some congressional Democrats demanded that Jackson resign.

A Congressional Research Service memo released yesterday said there is no law or regulation that specifically prohibits considering party affiliation in awarding a federal contract. But making an award conditional on party affiliation would violate the Federal Acquisition Regulation and may violate a bidder's constitutional rights, according to the memo from the nonpartisan agency.

"Contracts may not be awarded on the basis of personal or political favoritism, and all potential contractors should be treated 'with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none,' " wrote John R. Luckey, a CRS lawyer, who quoted from the Code of Federal Regulations.

"This is a serious matter and it deserves a serious response from the President," Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who requested the CRS opinion, said in a written statement. "These statements from Secretary Jackson are totally unacceptable."

One important ally was still in Jackson's corner: President Bush, who was once a neighbor of the former head of the Dallas Housing Authority.

"Alphonso Jackson has admitted that what he said earlier was improper, that it was a mistake, and the president accepts that and still supports a man with whom he's had a long and close relationship," White House press secretary Tony Snow said yesterday.