By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-09-13 00:06:31 | Updated at 2026-09-13 00:58:37
53 minutes ago
Scandal-plagued NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels promised a total overhaul of the city’s dysfunctional procurement system — without mentioning that he remains under investigation over alleged procurement violations of his own.
“As a taxpayer, I believe that every dollar spent in our schools should be transparent, accountable, and in the service of student success,” Samuels — who is accused of skirting the city’s competitive bidding rules — said Thursday.
Samuels, flanked by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a press conference at Mama Tingo’s Childcare Center in Washington Heights, joined Hizzoner in pledging that the reforms will save city taxpayers more than $100 million over this fiscal year and next by cutting red tape in the procurement process and modernizing contract software.
Critics, however, blasted Samuels’ promise of transparency and accountability as rank hypocrisy given the ongoing probe into his own conduct.
“Chancellor Samuels announcing procurement reform is akin to Jack the Ripper announcing a public safety initiative, the announcement makes one thing clear: he expects the department to adhere to a standard he does not apply to himself,” a City Hall insider said.
Samuels was exposed by The Post for signing a $180,000 no-bid contract with a vendor that had not been approved by the Department of Education and splitting payments between two companies to evade city oversight when he was District 3 superintendent in 2023.
A neatly identical contract was signed by his then-deputy superintendent, Mariela Graham, and the same vendor, Sean Kreyling, the following year.
An investigation by the Special Commissioner of Inquiry Anastasia Coleman was launched after it was reported that the Samuels-contracted vendor unknowingly sent a teacher who was banned from teaching in DOE schools due to sexual misconduct into two Manhattan schools for months.
A 2025 SCI report pinned all the blame on Graham, and recommended she be fired and never work for the DOE again.
Instead, Samuels gave her a cushy promotion to the DOE’s senior executive director of strategy, a job that pays $225,571 a year.
The SCI confirmed in June they were investigating Samuels, following The Post’s bombshell reporting.
Meanwhile, Mamdani allegedly stonewalled City Council’s attempts to review hundreds of DOE contracts totalling some $13 billion.
Council Speaker Julie Menin slammed Samuels and the DOE in a scathing July letter for a “pattern of opacity, slow-walking and delay” in responding to requests for the contracts.
“Despite repeated requests over several months, DOE has not produced these contracts, nor has it proposed a concrete timeline for doing so,” Menin’s office wrote.
A spokesperson for Menin’s office told The Post that City Hall has since delivered hundreds of contracts and they are now being analyzed.
The proposed $100 million in savings is a drop in the bucket, critics say, compared with the enormous sums lost through procurement violations and other contracting failures.
“This is a bit much coming from someone who personally threw his deputy under the bus, destroyed her reputation and career, and walked away with an unblemished record,” a DOE Insider said
A December 2025 SCI report found that check-splitting and other inappropriate procurement practices drove up the price the DOE spent on outside vendors to $386 million in 2025.
“Violations of procurement rules often resulted in financial losses to the DOE, led to state
and federal prosecutions, and/or prevented the DOE from working with the most qualified vendors
at fair market prices,” the report stated.
“I regret the lapses in policy and procedures that took place while I was the superintendent, and the actions in question were all meant to [be] in the pursuit of educational opportunity,” Samuels testified to City Council in June.
Samuels, via the DOE, declined to comment on the hypocrisy criticisms.
