Starting in the summer of 2022, Mayor Adams asked to have emergency powers, in order to manage contracts quickly and respond to emergency cases, such as the increase in immigrants arriving in the city, among others.
The municipal comptroller has denounced that a good part of the processes did not adhere to the established regulations, causing more taxpayer money to be spent.
Many of the contracts were correct, however, others have been problematic, such as the $432 million emergency contract with the firm DocGo, which subcontracted with a medical provider with no experience in providing services to the shelters.
For this reason, City Comptroller Brad Lander has revoked the mayor’s powers to manage contracts without them going through a review by his office.
“Yes. If there is a tail that gets stepped on, it means there is something. And yes, I think he is giving preference to his friends or something like that,” says Angélica Rodríguez.
“Which isn’t fair, but well, it’s not right. I mean, because it’s like only the people he wants to benefit.”
“It is having those benefits, which I think should be given to more people,” concludes Angélica Rodríguez.
Brad Lander assures that when you use emergency contracts, you will always pay more, since a comparison is not being made in terms of prices from various suppliers, so the more competitors there are and after an exhaustive review of the companies to which The more contracts are awarded, the less the city and taxpayers will pay.
New Yorker Alberto Vega says:
“A company to have all that power is not good. What do you do with maybe, two or three to check one?
And I think that Major Adams has a lot of power, that’s why we have to take away a little bit, because I don’t think he’s doing a good job with us.”
The Comptroller has reviewed contracts for 1.73 billion dollars, of which 80% has been allocated to services for immigrants seeking asylum here in New York City.
For his part, Mayor Adams, in a press conference on Tuesday, justified the emergency contracts.
He said they had to make quick decisions to shelter people, since this is an emergency and a national problem.
“More than 150,000 immigrants have arrived, the comptroller should be more concerned about asking the federal government for help,” he concluded.
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