Q&A
Delays in nonprofit contract payments and registration
0:38:02
·
3 min
Comptroller Lander discusses the ongoing issue of delayed payments to nonprofit contractors and efforts to address the problem.
- A recent report showed that 80% of contract registrations were late in the first half of FY24, worse than the previous three years.
- Some positive steps have been taken, such as making City Council discretionary awards multi-year and allowing up to 25% amendments without re-registration.
- Emergency contracts, despite being designed for faster processing, are still overwhelmingly reaching the Comptroller's office late.
- Recommendations include implementing a visible contract stat system and legislation to put timelines on agency processing.
- The Comptroller's office has met its 30-day deadline for registering contracts, with an average processing time of 17 days.
- Lander emphasizes the need for deadline-driven performance to improve the overall contract registration process.
Justin Brannan
0:38:02
Okay.
0:38:02
Let's talk about nonprofit contract payments.
0:38:07
Citi continues to struggle to pay its contracted nonprofit providers in a timely manner.
0:38:12
Back in January, your office published a report stating that 2 thirds of contracts were submitted late for registration.
0:38:19
The report disclosed that this is a worsening trend and delays in registration, as we all know, can have serious ramifications for nonprofits.
0:38:27
We heard that a lot over the past couple of weeks in public testimony.
0:38:32
What are the factors that has led to nearly 80% of late contract registrations in the first half of twenty twenty four?
Brad Lander
0:38:40
Yeah.
0:38:40
This is remains, as you know, a real passion of of mine as somebody who worked in the nonprofit sector for a long time, and who is close to people who continue to.
0:38:50
And this has just gotten gradually worse in recent years, and that 80% in the first half of the year, yeah, is worse than each of the 3 preceding years.
0:39:01
We have taken some good steps.
0:39:04
So the council agreed last year for the first time, to make its discretionary awards multiyear.
0:39:11
That doesn't mean you committed to the dollar amount.
0:39:13
So, you know, if you gave somebody a $10,000, award last year, you may or may not give them a an award this year, but they got a 3 year contract.
0:39:25
And so if you do, the money can be added to that contract without having to go through the whole registration process again.
0:39:31
So that didn't show up for you last year because it was the 1st year of that, but it is gonna show up for you this year.
0:39:37
So many of your discretionary grantees are not gonna have to go through the contract registration process again on council discretionary awards.
0:39:45
So that's an example of, like, a really good step we've taken that next year should get some of these well, it's interesting.
0:39:51
It won't even get the percentage of registrations down because they won't go through registration, but you'll have happy nonprofits.
0:39:57
So, so that was good.
0:40:00
We made a change in our office where you can go up to a 25% amendment of the contract.
0:40:06
So if there is a COLA increase that the city gives, you also don't have to go through registration again.
0:40:12
So that is really helping, but other things are just not getting where they need to be.
0:40:18
And even emergency contracts, which are supposed to be much faster, still have wound up overwhelmingly come to our office, because until they get to our office, they aren't set up in the financial system for payment.
0:40:31
85% of them, come long after the start of the contract.
0:40:36
So we continue to make a bunch of recommendations to city hall about what could be done to fix this, a visible contract stat system where the public could really see what is going on.
0:40:48
There's some legislation that's been proposed to put time lines on the agencies that do the processing.
0:40:57
We have only 30 days to register the contracts once they reach our office.
0:41:02
We get over 10,000 a year.
0:41:04
We have met the 30 day deadline on every single contract that has reached our office this term.
0:41:10
Our average is 17.
0:41:13
Deadlines, no one loves a deadline, but they are really good for propel you know, compelling performance, and I think that legislation has some things to recommend it.
Justin Brannan
0:41:23
Yeah.
0:41:23
I'm gonna turn it to some of my colleagues for questions.
0:41:25
We've also been joined by council members Brooks Powers on Zoom and council member Farrios.
0:41:31
Gonna start with questions from council member Carr, and we'll come back.
