Opinion | An example of oversight from the D.C. Council? More of that, please.

Donald’s objection raises a basic issue: Who should oversee the spending of public money? The answer is simple. Government expenditure has been, is now and forever should be the D.C. Council’s business. It lies at the heart of legislative oversight.

District taxpayers have the right to know, and the council has an obligation to find out, how Donald’s bonus was approved, including whether it was properly authorized and what remedial action should be taken if it is determined that any irregularity occurred. The amount is irrelevant. As with her management of the deficiency-riddled DCHA, Donald’s bonus is the D.C. Council’s business. White should not move on without satisfactory answers.

The same challenge faces the council’s Committee of the Whole, led by Chairman Phil Mendelson (D). This committee, which consists of all council members, oversees D.C. Public Schools. If ever an agency cried out for close oversight, it is DCPS. Children deserve better.

As in the case of dozens of students from Eastern High School and Wheatley Middle School who gathered to go on field trips, only to be left high and dry when their buses never arrived.

There they were: 60 Eastern High students, according to a post by the school’s band director, assembled at 3 a.m. last Saturday to make a four-hour trip to Norfolk State University in Virginia for “A Day in Sparta Marching Band Day Camp & Showcase.” But their buses were no-shows.

Then 12 Wheatley Middle School students gathered this week to travel to the ABC 7 TV studios for a tour, but their bus, reportedly booked through the city’s list of approved vendors and confirmed that morning, left them stranded.

Of the Eastern students left with no ride, DCPS said in a statement, “We are connecting with the vendor to determined why this happened, and DCPS is committed to holding transportation vendors and their drivers to the highest standards.” Yadda, yadda, yadda. That sort of tedious response has been heard before.

As was the case last fall when a bus carrying 44 Murch Elementary School students crashed on the way back to the city from a field trip in Centreville, Va. The driver left the roadway and struck a rock, and staff on the bus then had to intervene to force him to pull over. Responding Fairfax County police arrested and charged the driver with driving while intoxicated, along with nine counts of reckless care for a child. A county spokesperson said the driver’s license had been revoked because of a previous charge of driving while intoxicated.

But that’s not all. There were problems with two other drivers that day: a second who was also driving Murch students and a third who arrived to replace the accused drunk driver. All three, police said, lacked the commercial driver’s license needed to operate a school bus.

Following the bus accident, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said, “We will do a thorough review of our transportation vendors to ensure that student safety is always prioritized.”

Much the same message delivered to the parents and students left with no rides.

It is the business of D.C. lawmakers to see that DCPS leaders are doing their jobs. And if Mendelson and company are inclined to conduct oversight, they might delve as well into the larger issue of DCPS’s contracting and vetting system, which shells out bucks to vendors in amounts below the $1 million ceiling requiring council approval. That spending limit gives DCPS bureaucrats plenty of running room. Looking at some of their approved projects (as I have), DCPS is making the most of its spending autonomy, as well as handsomely enriching some eager contract-seekers. Whether schools are receiving value in return is another matter. That’s where oversight must come in.

Other D.C. agencies — from the departments of health and human services, to youth and rehabilitation services, to planning and economic development programs, all of which dispense millions — cry out for scrutiny, oversight and accountability.

Housing Committee Chairman Robert C. White Jr. is trying to do the job envisioned in the Home Rule Act. He could use some company.