NYC failed to conduct enough oversight on the emergency procurement of personal protective equipment at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting taxpayers dollars at risk of price-gouging and leaving the city vulnerable to opportunistic vendors, a new audit conducted by the city’s Comptroller’s Office found.
According to the report, shared exclusively with the Daily News, the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, didn’t consistently conduct vendor background checks in the rush to supply the city with PPE. In some cases, the city purchased from known unreliable vendors.
“Emergency procurement is a necessary tool for responding to crises — the City cannot slog through a RFP process while people are getting sick and dying. But the City must protect itself from crisis profiteers,” Comptroller Brad Lander said in a release.
During the emergency, much of the red tape on procurement, including the typical request for proposals, or RFP, was lifted.
The Trump administration was widely criticized for a lack of a coordinated response to PPE shortages, forcing cities and states to compete against each other for resources and scramble for solutions.
The Comptroller’s audit examined 59 procurements between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2020, valued at more than $1 billion. For 11 of them, valued at more than $200 million, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services didn’t show they conducted background checks on the vendors, the report said.
In four of those cases, the vendors either didn’t provide products or gave faulty products.
Although the administrative services department found warning signs for six of the procurements, in total valued at $173 million, it didn’t report them to other city agencies, the audit found.
While the Department of Citywide Administrative Services claimed that it continued to conduct price analysis, and that prices fluctuated over time, the audit found that the agency didn’t document price comparisons, and…
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