And vendors will now be able to bid on supplying goods and services to the city over the Internet under procurement legislation the City Council is expected to pass today.
In a twist on the popular Internet auction house, vendors will submit bids for government contracts, with the lowest bidder winning, officials said. With the city spending nearly $9 billion every year on goods and services, the e-Government bidding competition is expected to save the city about $200 million annually, according to a report by the Citizen's Budget Commission, an independent budget watchdog organization.
"Putting the procurement process on-line will increase accessibility and competition by allowing businesses to more easily navigate through an electronic process," said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), who chairs the council's select committee on technology in government.
For the past decade the city has grappled with ways to improve efficiency in how it buys goods and services.
The current system involves up to 10 agencies with an oversight structure that "duplicates efforts and adds significant time to each contract cycle," according to the budget commission's 2002 report.
Vendors currently bid for contracts through the sealed Requests for Proposal process, which can take from four to eight months, officials said.
While the city's Website provides information about how to do business with city agencies, it does not allow vendors to interact with the agencies on-line. The new system will allow vendors to track their bids through the contracting process, officials said.
The e-Government auction is just part of a comprehensive package of new procurement legislation the council is expected to pass in an effort to streamline the process by eliminating paperwork, speeding up bids and increasing the small purchase limits to $100,000, said Councilman Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) who chairs the contracts committee.
Currently, limits are $25,000 for goods, $50,000 for services and $100,000 for construction and technology, he said.
Danny Rosenthal, director for public policy and planning for United Jewish Appeal-New York, a coordinating agency for a consortium of local non-profit agencies, said the changes would "address many of the difficulties and frustrations of the not-for-profit sector in recent years."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. support the legislation.
Quelle: New York Newsday, 18.05.2004
