Public TV Overseer Faces New Questions

[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
Senior officials at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have asked a large accounting firm to rewrite a confidential report, provided to the corporation's board this month, that raised questions about the propriety of a number of large contracts. Among the contracts the auditors' report questioned, they said, was a consulting agreement worth almost $500,000 with a former president of the corporation, Robert T. Coonrod. The contract was approved by the corporation's board while Mr. Coonrod was still president to get around a statutory limit on his salary. Federal tax records show he was paid $174,000 in his final year of service. The report by auditors from the accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers is a particularly sensitive political document. It examines procurement practices while Cheryl Halpern, the corporation's newly elected chairwoman, led the board's audit committee. Most of the same board members who received the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report this month were on the board during the time under study. The report's conclusions questioning the contracts and spending practices of the corporation could be incendiary on Capitol Hill, where conservative lawmakers have often sought to reduce the corporation's annual budget.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/21/arts/television/21cpb.html
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