Scandal-plagued NYC Faculties Chancellor Kamar Samuels promised a complete overhaul of town’s dysfunctional procurement system — with out mentioning that he stays underneath investigation over alleged procurement violations of his personal.
“As a taxpayer, I consider that each greenback spent in our faculties must be clear, accountable, and within the service of pupil success,” Samuels — who’s accused of skirting town’s aggressive bidding guidelines — mentioned Thursday.
Samuels, flanked by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a press convention at Mama Tingo’s Childcare Heart in Washington Heights, joined Hizzoner in pledging that the reforms will save metropolis taxpayers greater than $100 million over this fiscal yr and subsequent by reducing pink tape within the procurement course of and modernizing contract software program.
Critics, nonetheless, blasted Samuels’ promise of transparency and accountability as rank hypocrisy given the continuing probe into his personal conduct.
“Chancellor Samuels saying procurement reform is akin to Jack the Ripper saying a public security initiative, the announcement makes one factor clear: he expects the division to stick to a regular he doesn’t apply to himself,” a Metropolis Corridor insider mentioned.
Samuels was uncovered by The Submit for signing a $180,000 no-bid contract with a vendor that had not been accredited by the Division of Schooling and splitting funds between two firms to evade metropolis oversight when he was District 3 superintendent in 2023.
A neatly equivalent contract was signed by his then-deputy superintendent, Mariela Graham, and the identical vendor, Sean Kreyling, the next yr.
An investigation by the Particular Commissioner of Inquiry Anastasia Coleman was launched after it was reported that the Samuels-contracted vendor unknowingly despatched a instructor who was banned from instructing in DOE faculties as a result of sexual misconduct into two Manhattan faculties for months.
A 2025 SCI report pinned all of the blame on Graham, and beneficial she be fired and by no means work for the DOE once more.
As a substitute, Samuels gave her a comfortable promotion to the DOE’s senior govt director of technique, a job that pays $225,571 a yr.
The SCI confirmed in June they have been investigating Samuels, following The Submit’s bombshell reporting.
In the meantime, Mamdani allegedly stonewalled Metropolis Council’s makes an attempt to evaluation tons of of DOE contracts totalling some $13 billion.
Council Speaker Julie Menin slammed Samuels and the DOE in a scathing July letter for a “sample of opacity, slow-walking and delay” in responding to requests for the contracts.
“Regardless of repeated requests over a number of months, DOE has not produced these contracts, nor has it proposed a concrete timeline for doing so,” Menin’s workplace wrote.
A spokesperson for Menin’s workplace advised The Submit that Metropolis Corridor has since delivered tons of of contracts and they’re now being analyzed.
The proposed $100 million in financial savings is a drop within the bucket, critics say, in contrast with the large sums misplaced by way of procurement violations and different contracting failures.
“It is a bit a lot coming from somebody who personally threw his deputy underneath the bus, destroyed her status and profession, and walked away with an unblemished file,” a DOE Insider mentioned
A December 2025 SCI report discovered that check-splitting and different inappropriate procurement practices drove up the worth the DOE spent on exterior distributors to $386 million in 2025.
“Violations of procurement guidelines usually resulted in monetary losses to the DOE, led to state
and federal prosecutions, and/or prevented the DOE from working with probably the most certified distributors
at honest market costs,” the report acknowledged.
“I remorse the lapses in coverage and procedures that passed off whereas I used to be the superintendent, and the actions in query have been all meant to [be] within the pursuit of academic alternative,” Samuels testified to Metropolis Council in June.
Samuels, by way of the DOE, declined to touch upon the hypocrisy criticisms.
