Hundreds of Students Say They Weren't Paid

Barry also said he was sorry that so much time had been spent on administrative issues but said "it had to be done for the good of the kids." As to whether the academy was really a "jobs" program, he said that "with the 14- and 15-year-olds, we have no problem paying them to learn."

He said computer glitches in the DOES payroll computers led to students being paid even if they didn't show up. That, in turn, made running the program even more difficult, Barry said.

"If the kid's going to get paid anyway, that destroys discipline," he said.

Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who chairs the committee that oversees the summer jobs program, called the administrative issues "a debacle in many ways."

"For young people to work and then not get paid is unconscionable," she said. "And then for individuals not to be working and to get paid is also unconscionable."

Barry and Schwartz are calling on the District inspector general to audit the summer jobs program as soon as possible. Schwartz said she would schedule an oversight hearing for September, when the council returns from recess.

In the short term, officials at the jobs program are working to make sure that the problems do not resurface the next time payday rolls around, Tangherlini said.

"We're still pulling apart what happened," he said. Officials think it was a mixture of computer glitches and human error, he said, and the Office of the Chief Technology Officer began analyzing the payroll system yesterday.

Tangherlini said he had not heard about the issues at the academy.

But, he said, "what we're doing is going around and looking at sites where there have been problems."