Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration broke anti- propaganda rules by using tax dollars to pay a columnist and create news video to promote the president's education policies, the investigative arm of Congress said.

The Government Accountability Office issued two reports yesterday examining Department of Education contracts with a public relations firm, Ketchum Inc. Ketchum prepared a video for use in television news programs, checked news stories to see how the Republican Party's view on education was reported and contracted with commentator Armstrong Williams, the report said.

The education department took these steps to promote President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law, which established new testing requirements for public schools, the report said. The news video does not say the federal government is the source of the material, nor did Williams reveal the government's connection to his comment, the report said.

``Rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on producing Republican propaganda, the Administration should return those funds and live up to the promises they made to America's students and teachers,'' said Senator Edward Kennedy in a statement. The Massachusetts senator and fellow Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey had requested the Government Accountability Office look into the Ketchum contracts.

The Government Accountability Office said the Department of Education had no appropriation available for the Williams commentary and video news releases. The department can conduct its own media analysis, and the addition of the search for how the Republican Party is perceived added little to costs, the accountability office said.

`Partisan Content'

``Nevertheless, we caution, that if the Department chooses to conduct media analyses in the future, it be more diligent in its efforts to ensure that such analyses be free from such explicit partisan content,'' said Anthony Gamboa, general counsel for the GAO in a reply to Kennedy and Lautenberg.

Liz McLean, the partner and director for Ketchum's Washington office, did not reply to a phone call made today or to an e-mail to the address given for her on the public relations firm's Web site. Williams did not return a call to his Washington office.

``The president has said it was wrong,'' said Erin Healy, a spokeswoman for the White House. ``The Department of Education already has taken steps to address it.''

The Department of Education had defended the prepackaged news programs, saying they are not propaganda because they are factual, the GAO said.

Conservative Voice

``When the television viewing public does not know that the stories they watched on television news programs about the government were in fact prepared by the government, the stories are, in this sense, no longer purely factual,'' the GAO said. ``The essential fact of attribution is missing.''

The Department of Education paid $38,421.06 for production of a video news release and $96,850.99 for analysis of news reports, the GAO said.

Williams's Web site describes him as a ``pugnacious, provocative and principled voice for conservatives and Christian values in America's public debates.'' The site also says millions read his weekly column. He also appears on television and radio.

The GAO said Williams approached the Department of Education in 2003 and offered to work for them. Williams offered the department a lower rate because he supported the No Child Left Behind Act, the report said. The department asked Ketchum to arrange a subcontract with his Graham Williams Group. Ketchum paid his firm $186,000 in connection with certain work done for the education department, the GAO report said.

The department of education failed to make sure those who heard and read Williams' comments on education policy knew he had a contact with the government, GAO said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kerry Dooley Young in Washington kdooley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 1, 2005 17:20 EDT