Mission Statement
Accountancy
The Bureau of Accountancy is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the City’s accounting and financial statements. It is also responsible for preparing the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR), which provides transparency into the City of New York’s financial health and integrity. In addition to promoting fiscal stability through the production of the ACFR, the Bureau of Accountancy ensures that the City’s vendor database is accurate and up to date to allow for efficiency in the processing of payments for businesses and individuals who are in contract with the City, as well as claims, workers’ compensation, labor law, line of duty, certificate of residency and all vendor payments in general. These efforts gain the public’s trust and allow for continued assessment into the City’s financial transactions to identity opportunities for improvement and engage with City agencies to ensure results.
Administration
The Bureau of Administration is committed to delivering strategic support services to strengthen and empower Office of the New York City Comptroller employees as they work toward ensuring the City's fiscal health. We provide service and support in a manner that promotes communication, transparency, and collaboration. These services include Human Resources, Procurement, Payment, Facilities Management, and Budget Management.
Asset Management
The Bureau of Asset Management is responsible for oversight of the investment portfolios of the five New York City pension systems. Through a culture of collaboration, individual development, and teamwork that leverages diverse talent and strives for continuous improvement, the goal of the Bureau of Asset Management is to achieve exceptional investment outcomes for all stakeholders; to deliver outstanding support to plan Trustees; and to serve as a responsible steward of the resources of plan beneficiaries and the City of New York.
Audit and Investigations
The Bureau of Audit and Investigations conducts audits and other analyses of City agencies to meet its mission of promoting efficient City government, improving the quality of government services, and maintaining the integrity of City operations. The Comptroller’s Office is required by the City Charter to perform an audit of some aspect of every City agency at least once every four years. It also has a mandate to perform financial audits of City transactions, revenues and expenditures to determine whether agencies are meeting their goals, and whether funds are being used effectively and efficiently.
The Research and Investigations Unit (R&I) of the Audit Bureau is composed of a team of lawyers and research and data analysts that supports the work of the Audit Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller. R&I conducts research, undertakes investigations, and prepares detailed reports of issues concerning the City’s operations, programs, and fiscal health. Where necessary, R&I makes referrals of its findings to other government agencies.
Budget
The Bureau of Budget evaluates New York City’s fiscal, cash, and economic position by analyzing revenue collections, expenditures, the capital program, and the condition of the local economy. The Bureau uses its charter-mandated responsibilities to promote transparency and accountability in financial reporting and budgeting. In addition to reviewing and commenting on the City’s Financial Plan and issuing reports on the City’s cash balances and debt capacity, the Bureau oversees an independent actuarial audit to review the assumptions underlying the City’s pension contributions. The Bureau also conducts regular assessments of the City’s economic outlook and revenue performance and strives to lead the dialogue on the City’s fiscal state through reliable and thought-provoking economic and budget research.
Contract Administration
The Bureau of Contract Administration (BCA) is responsible for reviewing and approving City contracts and agreements before they are legally effective unless this authority has been delegated to city agencies or is otherwise not legally required. The City Charter gives BCA up to 30 calendar days to review contracts and agreements. During this period, BCA ensures that appropriate funds exist for the city to make payments to vendors, confirms that the contracting agency followed proper procurement rules, and that there was no corruption in the decision-making process. BCA also ensures that contracting agencies have checked vendors looking to do business with the City and that vendors are operating in good standing and eligible to be awarded a city contract. Through its collaborations with other city agencies, and analyses like the Annual Summary Contracts Report, BCA also works to increase efficiency and public value across the City’s procurement activities and to improve transparency around how public funds are spent.
Engineering
The Bureau of Engineering (BOE) provides technical competency in the evaluation of claims pending in the Bureau of Law and Adjustment (BLA) involving construction, construction services, and property damage to ensure the fair and just resolution of claims and lawsuits involving the City. BOE also enables the timely and just administration of City contracts. BOE’s technical analysis and recommendations are core to the Bureaus’ mission to ensure the fair and just resolution of claims while protecting the fiscal interest of the city. In addition, BOE’s thorough and expeditious review of Final Contract Time Extensions requests (FTE) promotes the equitable and fair administration of City contracts while protecting the City from unanticipated claims under such contracts. BOE furthers its mission by liaising with City-wide Engineering Audit Officers and providing guidance on compliance with contract provisions and Comptroller’s Directives in the pre-audit of payments on capital construction projects. BOE strives to increase equity, inclusiveness, and transparency in the claims process, by simplifying access to and enhancing ease of use.
General Counsel
The Comptroller’s Office of General Counsel leverages the expertise of its diverse team of attorneys to provide high quality legal advice, counsel, and support to the Comptroller and the Agency’s various bureaus. OGC facilitates and advances the Office’s strategic objectives in advising on the various legal and operational opportunities and risks, while ensuring compliance with the Agency’s Charter mandate, as well as local, state, and federal laws.
Labor Law
The Bureau of Labor Law sets and enforces the prevailing and living wage, and benefit rates for workers, laborers, and mechanics employed on New York City Public Work projects as well as building service employees on City contracts and certain properties that receive tax exemptions, in accordance with its mandate under state law. The goal of the Worker’s Rights Bureau is to build upon the work that the BLL already does to combat wage theft to expand worker’s rights and enforcement through legislation, policy, procurement, and corporate shareholder engagement initiatives, while strengthening the office’s outreach strategies to educate New Yorkers on their labor rights.
Law and Adjustment
Authorized by the New York City Charter, the Comptroller, through the Bureau of Law and Adjustment (BLA), negotiates and approves all monetary settlement of claims and lawsuits involving the City of New York. BLA investigates and, when in the best interest of the city, settles pre-litigation claims for and against the City of New York. In resolving claims before litigation is commenced, BLA protects the fiscal interest of the City while ensuring that pre-litigation claims are resolved in a fair and just manner, and in accordance with applicable laws. BLA furthers this goal in its review, evaluation, and authorization of requests to settle litigated cases involving the City and through diligent administration of disputes arising out of City contracts. BLA manages City risk by holding agencies accountable, rooting out fraud, and identifying trends, as well as, coordinating with the Law Department and other City agencies on issues that impact the public fiscal and public safety.
Public Affairs
The Bureau of Public Affairs is the principal liaison between the New York City Comptroller’s office and the public, elected officials, and community-based organizations. The Bureau provides engagement, organizing, and event planning capacity to support the Comptroller’s strategic objectives and provide direct assistance to New Yorkers navigating City bureaucracy. Public Affairs is responsible for making the Comptroller’s Office more accessible to everyday New Yorkers, as well as collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to leverage the tools of the office in ways that improve the lives of New Yorkers across the five boroughs.
Public Finance
The Bureau of Public Finance manages all aspects of City-related borrowing for the Comptroller’s Office with the mission to arrange for timely, cost-effective financing of the City’s capital program and ,when appropriate, the refinancing of outstanding debt for savings. The Bureau promotes the City’s short-term and long-term financial health by establishing and enforcing fiscally responsible debt practices, monitoring the portfolio of outstanding bonds, and securing the lowest risk-appropriate borrowing cost on debt of the City and its affiliated entities.
Working with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and other external partners, the Public Finance Bureau determines and approves the timing, structures, terms, and conditions for City General Obligation (GO) bonds, as well as debt of the New York City Transitional Finance Authority (TFA) and New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority (NYW). The Bureau of Public Finance also reviews and approves debt issued by TSASC, Inc. , Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation, the New York City Housing Development Corporation, Battery Park City Authority, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the New York City Educational Construction Fund, and the Trust for Cultural Resources of the City of New York.
Public Policy and Organizing
The Bureau of Public Policy and Organizing advises the Comptroller on public policy issues confronting New York City to build a more just, equitable, and resilient City. Based on the team’s policy analysis, original research, strategic organizing, and engagement of New Yorkers, the Bureau of Public Policy and Organizing develops innovative and data-driven public policy ideas, provides the public with the information needed for transparency on services and operations to make government work better, and organizes initiatives that reflect community voices. The Policy and Organizing team works closely in partnership with other bureaus to advise and support the Comptroller’s office in fulfilling its core duties and responsibilities.
Press Office
The Communications Team supports the work of the Comptroller’s office to secure a thriving future for all New Yorkers by disseminating information, highlighting key initiatives through digestible and multimedia content, growing the credibility of the office through relationships with the press and the public, and advancing the conversation locally and nationally on key policy objectives.