New York City paid for its services for immigrants with extra costs and without comparing offers

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander published a report in which he revealed that taxpayer money was used improperly to contract services for immigrants without comparing bids. The information becomes known at a time when New Yorkers are facing a crisis due to the uncontrolled arrival of undocumented immigrants.

"In a report released today analyzing the City’s major emergency staffing contracts for asylum seeker services, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander revealed that lack of coordination by City Hall likely led the City to pay for-profit companies millions of dollars more than necessary," explained a summary published by the comptroller's office.

According to the information, the comptroller's office analyzed the four main emergency personnel contracts obtained by city agencies to staff asylum seeker facilities. "The report found drastic discrepancies in the pricing of equivalent services. In one comparison, the compensation for a comparable position ranged from $58 to $201 per hour across the four contracts," the office noted.

The comptroller's analysis was based on the four highest-cost emergency contracts purchased by the mayor's agencies for staffing services for asylum seekers in hotels, welcome centers, and Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers (HERRC):

'The City should insist on getting the most competitive prices'

Likewise, the office explained that there was no effective comparison of the contracts that would allow the city to choose the best proposal. Meanwhile, the comptroller refers to the situation as an alleged "disorderly approach." He explained that, in addition, the last three contracts were selected without public bidding.

“The City’s haphazard approach to entering these contracts – and their subsequent failure to compare or control prices across them – underscores the pitfalls of inadequate management of emergency procurement. The result is that City agencies likely spent millions of dollars more than necessary for the same services. Rather than evicting people from shelter in the middle of winter, the City should insist on getting the most competitive prices from its own contractors in order to keep costs down.," said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

Specifically, the office highlighted that, until November 2023, 340 unique asylum seeker contracts were identified across 14 different municipal agencies, representing an estimated value of $5.7 billion. "In early December, the Comptroller revoked the Mayor’s blanket authority (granted in July 2022) to issue emergency contracts for asylum seeker services, requiring agencies to obtain prior approval from the Comptroller’s office on a contract-by-contract basis," the comptroller's office said.