New York Archives - Checks and Balances Project

Who Gets the “F” Grade Now? 2 ½ Years After C&BP’s Request for Public Records, NYC Mayor De Blasio’s Folks are Still Looking

2021-03-5

NYC found 4,294 relevant emails, but we were told it would be a “burden” to give them to us. We hired a lawyer, refiled a simpler request, but we couldn’t get the emails. We trimmed our request to about 100 emails. We appealed to various elected officials. Mr. Mayor, you’re turning this into an opera!

Checks and Balances Project Calls on NYC Oversight Officials to Probe Stonewalling by Mayor’s Office, City Agencies on Public Records of $47M Boondoggle

2020-05-26

The Mayor’s Office of Contract Services has spent eight months evading requests for emails from former Chief Procurement Officer Michael Owh concerning the origins of a multi-million-dollar contract with an inexperienced French technology company. Four years after the City awarded Ivalua a lucrative contract for eProcurement software, the system still doesn’t work as promised.

NYC’s “End-to-End” eProcurement Pipe Dream: $47M Later, City Still Uses 2 Vendor Management Systems

2020-04-28

There’s confusion that vendors have to use two systems, even after millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on a new system to address the problem. In a time of collapsing city revenues, taxpayers will understandably ask: Why?

NYC Vendor System Appears Mired in “Red Tape,” Delaying First Order of Medical Supplies to Address Pandemic

2020-04-1

Despite the pandemic making eProcurement software all the more important so New York City can purchase crucial supplies, the product New York City bought in 2016 still doesn’t work as promised.

NYC Mayor’s Office of Contract Services Continues Its Slow-Motion Response to Questions on $47M Tech Boondoggle

2020-03-19

Why would it take weeks – when MOCS has already had months – to run a search of one former employee’s email account with one term? What is the Mayor’s Office hiding?

New York City’s $47M Taxpayer Ripoff: A Cast of Characters & Timeline

2020-01-13

The Ivalua software still doesn’t work as promised. How did this boondoggle happen? Why are two City agencies involved so reluctant to release public records?

C&BP Calls Out NYC Procurement Chief Symon for a Pattern of Evasion in Gotham Gazette Letter

2020-01-9

We’ve requested public records from only two former employees of Symon’s agency but have repeatedly received automated emails that put off providing us with records due to the “complexity” of our request.

Gotham Gazette Op-Ed: C&BP Calls on NYC Officials to Investigate $47M Tech Boondoggle

2019-12-17

Since last summer, after receiving a tip, Checks and Balances Project has been looking into questions about New York City’s $30.5M contract with software company Ivalua to custom-build an eProcurement platform for some 40 city government agencies. Fast forward 16 months and the contract amount has risen to $47M while the city still doesn’t have… Read more »

Coordination or Coincidence? 2 NYC Agencies Say They’ll Respond on the Same Day to Our Records Request

2019-11-13

The old-school definition of Freedom of Information means that the public has a right to most documents that are created by officials whose work and salaries are paid by taxpayers. A newer version, it seems, means that public officials have the obligation to protect a government agency from possible embarrassment by hiding documents.

Which NYC Official Failed to Collect Ivalua’s $25M Bond for Non-Performance — and Why?

2019-09-30

Two years and tens of millions of dollars into a contract for an eProcurement system, there was no design.