Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Addressing delays in contract payments to nonprofits
0:48:21
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Speaker Adams raises concerns about delayed payments and contract registration for nonprofits, suggesting that inadequate staffing is at the heart of the problem. Director Jiha outlines the administration's efforts to address the issue.
- A working group has been convened to address payment and contract registration delays
- OMB is providing agencies with resources and staffing to tackle the challenge
- Over 80% of position requests related to this issue have been approved
- Weekly high-level meetings are held to find solutions and monitor progress
- Significant progress has been made, with $1.4 billion in payments made last October
Adrienne Adams
0:48:21
Okay.
0:48:21
And moving just to note, the NYPD and DOC are under budgeted headcount.
0:48:28
Okay.
0:48:30
Let's look at contract payments.
0:48:32
The city's payments and contract registration have been so delayed that a number of nonprofits have had to close their doors.
0:48:39
The administration and city council have convened a working group to address this issue.
0:48:43
However, we believe that at the heart of this problem is the lack of adequate staffing, once again, at agencies that are dedicated to processing contracts and payments.
0:48:54
How many staff at each agency are dedicated to nonprofit contracting, and what is the average number of contracts that these staff currently manage?
Jacques Jiha
0:49:05
I cannot give you for every single agency because every single agency is different, but what I can tell you is our objective has been on providing the agencies the resources, the staffing that they need to make sure the process deal with this challenge, this problem that we have with the permits.
0:49:27
Currently, we exempted a number of dispositions.
0:49:31
We received about 200 pars from the agencies, and I believe we approve over 80% so far.
0:49:38
Okay.
0:49:41
And over 60?
0:49:44
Of those that are currently in NICAP system, but who are working with the agencies to add the remaining in the NICAP system so that we continue to approve them for them.
0:49:54
So we we realized this is a problem.
0:49:56
We exempt those functions in procurement, budget, you know, so that they could process those invoices faster.
0:50:06
But we've made significant progress, I would say to you, working with the Marks and the mayor's office of nonprofit.
0:50:19
We have, you know, a high level meeting every week with deputy mayors, myself, everyone involved, all hands on deck to make sure that we find solutions for them.
0:50:33
And as a result, we have made significant progress.
0:50:35
I believe last October, we paid about $1,400,000,000 in terms of payments.
0:50:41
But again, we continue it's a process, but our goal right now is to add as as we can given all the financial challenges we're dealing with, providing provide the agents all the resources that they need to make sure that we tackle this problem.
Adrienne Adams
0:50:59
Okay.