Lee seems amazed by the used car transaction. "This ought not to happen," he says. "It looks like someone presented it as a gift. I am the only one authorized to accept vehicles into the fleet. Something is wrong here. It's not a city car."
Employees should not ask consultants to buy them personal computers, Lee says.
Isabel Samaras
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And the catered food makes Lee angry. "I buy the doughnuts for my staff meetings out of my own pocket," he says, "so consultants should pay for their food, too!"
But when Lee was asked why his purchasing department signed off on all of Don Todd Associates' invoices, he said his department is not concerned with the "substance" of the invoices. That is the responsibility of DPW, he said.
Controller Edward Harrington, who is in charge of the city's books and internal audits, says his office "used to review individual invoices, but we no longer do that because vendors complained that checking the invoices delayed their payments." Now, Harrington explains, the Public Works Department inputs payment amounts into the city's computerized accounting system directly, with the Controller's Office spot-checking the entries for accuracy.
Harrington, too, says that city contracts should not be allowed to increase by more than 10 percent without being rebid, but distances his office from responsibility for overseeing departments to ensure they limit contract amendments that turn small jobs into huge ones.
The city's purchasing and financial accounting regulations were put in place to minimize waste and opportunities for employees or city contractors to enrich themselves, or their friends, at the expense of the public. The rules may be labyrinthine, and sometimes even arcane. But if history had shown that city employees could always be trusted to get the best deal for the people who pay their salaries -- the public -- no procurement laws would be on the books.
It would be unfair to blame the strange circumstances around Don Todd Associates' consulting contracts solely on Don Todd Associates, or even the Department of Public Works. There are dozens of consultants -- experts in engineering, computer science, public relations, human relations, and even odor control -- who have insinuated themselves throughout the city bureaucracy. Wherever there is a city job that requires more than basic typing skills, it seems, consultants are to be found. They tend to be indistinguishable from normal workers, except that they charge large fees for doing jobs that city employees are already hired and paid to do.
The wastefulness of the city's personal service contracting system has long been well-known. Yet it persists -- almost as an ineluctable force of Nature; a way of life that could be changed with a simple command to city employees: Obey the rules. Or else.
