Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What do you get for $2.9M?

A notice in the October 31, 2011 issue of the City Record indicated that NYCERS had award a contract to the Caudwell Wingate Company, LLC for the demolition and build-out of a disaster recovery site. The amount of the award was $2,897,271. This was a negotiated acquisition.

There is a problem with this contract. NYCERS does not have a budget authorization for this $2.9M item in its FY-2012 budget. The trustees will need to modify the FY-2012 budget to cover this expense. As of now, the NYCERS executive director does not have the authority to sign this contract unless the trustees have authorized the funds needed to pay for it.

What is NYCERS supposed to be getting for this $2.9M? In April of this year, the NYCERS legal department described the work as follows: “ to include but not limited to demolition of existing walls, installation of walls, HVAC, lighting, flooring, electrical, millwork, new operable partition wall and sink in pantry”. That must be some sink. This work is being done on a single floor in an old warehouse site where a retail firm used to store some of its inventory. In passing, it appears that the NYCERS legal department has been reassigned to procurement and site management.

When is this project going to be completed? MaƱana.

Who is Caudwell Wingate and what are their political connections? This week the NY Times had an interesting story about a boiler installation contract at the new Yankee Stadium.

Considering that NYCERS signed the lease for the disaster recovery site in L.I.C. in 2006 and it is still not yet operational, the trustees should be closely monitoring everything involved with this project.

Everyone is screaming about a pension crisis. This is the type of management failure that causes a crisis.

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