Public Employee Press

Contracting IN beats contracting out
City two-faced on contracting rules

What a difference three days make.

Seventy-two hours after the city announced plans to clean up its procurement process, it went back to approving multimillion-dollar contracts with little oversight and less concern for costs.

Deputy Mayor Caswell F. Holloway reviewed the Bloomberg administration's new policy on information technology projects Oct. 31 at a joint session of the City Council committees on Contracts and Technology.

The city is adopting the policy in the wake of scandals involving corrupt, late and overcharging contractors. The corruption, including the CityTime automated payroll project in which a dozen consultants were charged in an $80 million rip-off, has embarrassed Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pledged to bring his business skills and corporate ethos to city government.

Holloway underscored the administration's newfound commitment to "pay ruthless attention to the schedule and budget" of information technology projects. The city says it will save money by using commercial software and standardized contract clauses.

But three days later, it was business as usual.

On Nov. 3, the Mayor's Office on Contract Services held a hearing and quickly approved information technology contracts that the administration sought to put in place before possible new legislation governing contracting could take effect next year.

DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido testified at both hearings, charging that the rush to beat the clock violated the spirit of the new policy. He said the no-bid, short-term contracts for the Dept. of Information Technology and Telecommunications would cost over $300 million but were never subjected to cost-benefit analysis.

A group from Electronic Data Processing Employees Local 2627 testified - President Robert D. Ajaye, Vice Presidents Michael Lanni and Gene Olmstead and members Bernard McFall and Rudolph Kornan - saying DC 37 members could do the work more efficiently.

Local 375 Secretary Jon Forster and DC 37 Senior Analysts spoke against a $35 million of engineering contracts at the Dept. of Design and Construction, and Local 1549 Recording Secretary Carmen Flores blasted a plan to contract out social services in a housing program for single homeless adults.

—Gregory N. Heires