Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Mayor’s Office of Contract Services

Mayor’s Office of Contract Services

  • City's $20 Billion in Contracting Takes Another Step into Modernity

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    New York City government spends roughly $20 billion per year on goods and services through contracts with non-governmental vendors, including thousands of opportunities for companies of all types and sizes to work with the city. But the contracting process has long been arduous for vendors to navigate and difficult for watchdogs to closely monitor. Officials say that is now changing as a multi-step effort has unfolded over the past few years to modernize the technical infrastructure and databases that

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  • Taxpayers and Vendors Realizing Great Value from City’s Procurement Overhaul

    ethnic media roundtable

    (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The City of New York has embarked on a mission to transform a procurement system that is outmoded, inefficient, and wasteful, and we are proud to have already made monumental progress. This paper-heavy process has been built up over generations, it is overly burdensome, particularly to small vendors, nonprofits and minority- and women-owned businesses, and, for many years, has plagued vendors with delayed approvals, slow payments, and a lack of transparency.

    This reform effort has been underway for a

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  • We’re Transforming Public Sector Contracting

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As the City of New York continues to work towards building the most efficient, most transparent, highest functioning government possible, the historically opaque and wasteful government contract procurement process is often overlooked, and for too long has been deemed too complicated to untangle.

    But new technology has the capacity to make government procurement simpler, faster, and cheaper -- and it is happening in New York.

    Of the city’s $92+ billion annual budget, over 20% -- approximately $19.3 billion --

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  • City Approach to Nonprofit Contracting Questioned

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    Council Member Rosenthal at a recent hearing (photo: William Alatriste) 


    Human services nonprofits serve the city’s most vulnerable populations, providing a range of critical programs like foster care, homelessness services, after-school programs, mental health care, food pantries, and more. But, many of these organizations are faltering due to problems with the ways in which government approaches contracting.

    On Monday, the New York City Council Committee on Contracts held an oversight hearing to examine serious

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  • Hearing Will Examine Pay for Workers Serving City’s Most Vulnerable

    rosenthal contracts alatriste

    Council Member Rosenthal (photo: William Alatriste)


    For six years, a particular group of workers employed through contracts with the city, and filling important roles, saw their wages stagnate. In May of this year, however, Mayor de Blasio announced that his Executive Budget for the 2016 fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2015, would provide a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment increase and an $11.50 per hour

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