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Discussion on KPMG contract and monitorship models for oversight
1:05:33
ยท
3 min
Council Member Restler and Commissioner Strauber discuss the KPMG contract for overseeing asylum seeker-related expenditures and the effectiveness of monitorship models in expanding DOI's oversight capacity.
- Strauber explains that monitorships are typically used for overseeing large capital projects or vendors with integrity issues.
- The KPMG model is designed to assist DOI in monitoring large projects where the risk of fraud and abuse is significant.
- Monitorships focus on ensuring the city gets the services it has contracted for and preventing overcharging or substandard work.
- While using outside firms can provide faster capacity and expertise, it tends to be more expensive than using city employees.
Lincoln Restler
1:05:33
I guess two more questions if that's okay, chair Brewer.
1:05:36
I really appreciate it.
1:05:37
Could you explain to us how the k m p k KMPG?
1:05:43
Do I have my acronym right?
1:05:44
KMPG?
1:05:44
KPMG.
1:05:45
KPMG.
1:05:46
I'm sorry.
1:05:46
KPMG contract to oversee the asylum seekers has been working.
1:05:51
Do you think that considering how OMB has starved DOI of resources, the 25% staffing reduction we've seen over the last year, which doesn't include the 25% additional reduction in loan headcount.
1:06:04
Is that a model that we should be looking to replicate so as to help expand DOI capacity, bringing in partners like KPMG or law firms or other entities to provide kind of monitor like oversight of areas of city government that need, you know, additional review at this time?
Jocelyn E. Strauber
1:06:25
It is certainly a model that I think works well.
1:06:27
So typically, you know, as you know, there are two types of monitorships.
1:06:31
One type involves city vendors who have their own integrity issues where the city needs to contract with that vendor for some purpose and therefore the vendor funds the monitorship and DOI oversees it.
1:06:42
The KPMG model that you're describing like the monitorship of the borough based jails are basically designed to assist us in monitoring large capital projects.
1:06:52
That's that's how monitorships have been used.
1:06:55
And and the investment of funds that the city is willing to make makes sense because the project is so large that a risk of of fraud and abuse is therefore much more significant.
1:07:05
Absolutely.
1:07:05
And that was the that was the basis for, you know, our proposal to use KPMG, and the city, you know, had
Lincoln Restler
1:07:11
Is that strictly a fiscal oversight?
1:07:13
Or are you in kind of waste, fraud, and abuse?
1:07:15
Are there other is that the real focus of
Jocelyn E. Strauber
1:07:18
Well, focus is really to make sure that that the city is getting the benefit of what it's bargained for.
1:07:24
Right?
1:07:24
So if the city has signed up vendors to provide meals and to provide residences for asylum seekers or to provide translation services, we want to make sure that they're getting those services, that they're not getting cheated, that people aren't charging more than they should be, for example, for work that they're not doing.
1:07:42
In the construction context, it's more complicated.
1:07:45
You're also making sure that the materials being provided, in fact, line up with the specifications, which is not something that you would necessarily know just by reviewing invoices.
1:07:54
So principally that has been the purpose of those types of monitorships.
1:07:59
But certainly the model of hiring an outside firm with expertise to kind of force multiply DOI staffing could be directed I think to almost any type of project.
1:08:13
Right?
1:08:13
I mean those firms have investigative expertise.
1:08:15
We could staff a group that includes outside personnel.
1:08:20
We could direct them to do really whatever kind of investigation we wanted that'd be acting as our agents, etcetera.
Lincoln Restler
1:08:27
And considering how challenging OMB has made the hiring process, that may else may also be a faster way to bring on capacity and provide oversight.
Jocelyn E. Strauber
1:08:37
It can be.
1:08:37
It tends to be more expensive, right, because you're getting private sector, and and you're not giving those opportunities to employees who might work for the city.
1:08:45
That's kind of the downside.
1:08:47
But certainly, can you can hire and staff up more quickly.
1:08:50
Obviously, you can use them those sorts of things for short term projects that we really would have difficulty hiring for because you can't hire someone for a case that, you know, might be over in a year.
Lincoln Restler
1:09:00
Yeah.