COMPTROLLER TO PUBLISH AGENCY REPORT CARD ON WEBSITE

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New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and City Council Contracts Committee Chair Robert Jackson today unveiled a comprehensive report recommending dramatic reforms with the City's antiquated procurement process. The report by the Comptroller/City Council Joint Advisory Committee on Procurement Reform, follows an extensive examination of the City's contracting system. The Joint Advisory Committee released the report Tuesday at a news conference also attended by City Council Member Gale Brewer, who chairs the Council's Committee on Technology in Government.

The Joint Advisory Committee is comprised of the Comptroller, Council Member Jackson, and leaders of not-for-profit organizations and for-profit vendors. Since October, the Joint Advisory Committee studied technological advancements to improve the vendor system, methods of streamlining the contract approval process, and ways to remedy delays in the contract registration process. The committee's report contains 16 recommendations and four additional initiatives undertaken by the Comptroller.

"The City continues to contract in the same way it did a decade ago," Comptroller Thompson said. "Working together, we must undertake a number of management and legislative initiatives. We have identified a series of ways that the City can easily remedy bottlenecks and delays. These measures will hold people accountable and improve the job that the City does."

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller added: "I am very pleased that the Comptroller and the City Council have joined forces in the continuing fight for procurement reform and I want to thank all of the groups that took the time to provide thoughtful recommendations. I look forward to working with the Comptroller on measures that streamline the city procurement process."

Council Member Jackson said the City's fiscal woes warrant reform. "It is imperative that, given the $7.5 billion we contract out for goods and services, the process be short and honest and save the citizens of New York City more than $200 million a year. This money will pay for schools, housing and healthcare for thousands of New Yorkers. We must take these actions. We do not have a choice."

The recommendations rely heavily on technological improvements to address systemic delays in contracts reaching the Comptroller's Office. A large number of contracts are submitted to the Comptroller's Office for registration after their start date, a problem called retroactive contracts. In Fiscal Year 2002, 64 percent of all new human service contracts were submitted to the Comptroller's Office for registration after vendors already had begun to work. Contracts were late an average of 152 days.

Comptroller Thompson plans to address several of the problems by publishing a monthly agency report card on all contracts submitted to the Comptroller's Office for registration, including retroactive contracts. This will let vendors and the public easily access and track information on contracts held with the City.

"Procurement reform that includes speedy and efficient access by the diverse stakeholders in our city and our agencies, while maintaining a corruption-free system, is what New Yorkers deserve," Council Member Brewer said. "In an era of new technology, I congratulate Comptroller Bill Thompson and Council Contracts Chair Robert Jackson for their report on this topic, and in the near future I look forward to recommending e-government initiatives that allow the public to directly interface with city procurement opportunities."

The Advisory Committee also recommended that the City thoroughly review the procurement process, identify bottlenecks, and report on tracking statistics in the annual Mayor's Management Report.

In addition to Thompson and Jackson, Advisory Committee members are: Suzy Edelstein, United Neighborhood Houses; Jeff Elmer, Deputy Director of Government Relations, General Contractors Association of New York; Diana Fortuna, President, Citizens Budget Commission; Melanie Hartzog, Public Policy Associate, Human Services Council; John F. Hennessy III, P.E., President, New York Association of Consulting Engineers; Cao K. O, Executive Director, Asian American Federation of New York; Robert S. Peckar, Senior Partner, Peckar & Abramson PC; Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, Vice President, Hispanic Federation, Inc.; Bonnie Potter, Executive Director, New York City Employment and Training Coalition; Danny Rosenthal, Director of City and Federal Policy,UJA-Federation of New York; Cynthia S. Searcy, Research Associate, Citizens Budget Commission; Margaret Stix, Associate Director, New York City Employment and Training Coalition; and Marcia Van Wagner, Deputy Research Director and Chief Economist, Citizens Budget Commission.