DRUG CONTROL OFFICE REOPENING BIDDING

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said yesterday that
it would reopen the bidding for the media planning and buying duties for
its antidrug campaign.

Those duties have been handled since December 1998 by Ogilvy & Mather
Worldwide in New York, part of the WPP Group (news/quote). Annual spending
on the account, with creative assignments handled by the Partnership for a
Drug-Free America, was estimated at $160 million.

Ogilvy is facing a criminal and civil inquiry by the Justice Department
into reports that it overbilled the drug control office.

Ogilvy is in the third year of a contract to handle the media duties, which
could have been extended two more years.

Paul Clark, a spokesman for Ogilvy, would not say whether the agency would
take part in the rebidding. In a statement, Ogilvy attributed the rebidding
to "intense pressure brought by Congress" to dismiss Ogilvy after the
agency's billing procedures were questioned.