New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer on Tuesday hit Mayor Bill de Blasio with a lawsuit claiming the city’s suspension of procurement rules during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed it to “waste and fraud.”
An emergency executive order de Blasio issued on March 17 of last year allowed the city to ink more than $6.9 billion in pandemic-related contracts to buy personal protective equipment and other items, “all without charter-mandated oversight by the Office of the Comptroller,” Stringer said in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
Suspending standard procurement practices “exposed the city to widespread procurement failures, including overpayment and over-purchasing in this category of purported ‘emergency’ contracting amounting to millions in wasted taxpayer dollars,” the release said.
“Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ongoing suspension of procurement rules continues to expose the city to waste and fraud,” Stringer said in a statement. “Over 15 months after this order was first issued, there is no excuse for this flagrant violation of the Charter and affront to the basics of good government.”
"Enough is enough — my office is faced with no other option than to take legal action to re-establish the checks and balances that exist to protect taxpayer dollars,” he added.
“As we work toward a strong post-pandemic recovery, the Mayor cannot continue to enable unscrupulous spending, unvetted vendors, and misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
1010 WINS has reached out to the mayor's office for comment on the suit.
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news...ding-practices
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