Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Comptroller Stringer: Mayor Must Rescind Emergency Powers and Restore Full Charter-Mandated Oversight of Contracts and Procurement

 

Following the Mayor’s calls to revoke the Governor’s emergency powers, Comptroller Stringer calls on Mayor de Blasio to apply the same principle to his own administration by rescinding Emergency Executive Order 101, Section 2, which suspends procurement laws and regulations

Since March 2020, the City has entered into 1,238 contracts under EEO 101, Section 2 totaling more than $5.2 billion of City funds committed without appropriate oversight

Comptroller Stringer: “As we approach the one-year mark of the suspension of the checks and balances that govern our City’s emergency procurement process, the Executive can no longer use the pandemic as a shield to circumvent the independent oversight enshrined in long-standing statutes and rules.”

 New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer sent a letter to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio calling on City Hall to rescind Emergency Executive Order (EEO) 101, Section 2, which suspended laws and regulations related to procurement in the city since the shutdown on March 17, 2020. Following two letters sent to the Administration in August and October of 2020 yielding no results from the City, Comptroller Stringer underscored the need to finally rescind the Mayor’s emergency powers granted to City Hall just as the Mayor recently called on the New York State Legislature to immediately revoke the Governor’s emergency powers. The City has entered into 1,238 contracts under Mayor de Blasio’s emergency powers, totaling more than $5.2 billion in City-funded contracts since March 2020 — without the statutory oversight of the Comptroller’s Office.

As the one-year anniversary of the citywide shutdown approaches, Comptroller Stringer urged the Mayor to rescind EEO 101, Section 2, and restore the City’s system of checks and balances in the contracts and procurement process to ensure full accountability, transparency, and to protect taxpayers.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

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