NYC Comptroller Lander Finds Adams Administration Abused Contract Extensions
Adams Admin exploiting Negotiated Acquisition Extensions means outdated terms & prevents competitive bidding
New York, NY – In a new report, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander revealed that Mayor Eric Adams’ Administration consistently exploits city contract extensions, Déjà Vu All Over Again: NYC’s Over-Reliance on Extension Contracts. Negotiated Acquisition Extensions (NAEs), authorized under the Procurement Policy Board (PPB) Rules, are meant to be short-term bridge agreements to keep vital services flowing until the City can bid for new contracts. Instead, the City uses NAEs to delay new contracts, forcing service providers, especially human service providers, to operate well past the maximum time period originally outlined by the agency and vendor. Nearly a quarter of NAE contracts that the City registered in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 extended the baseline agreements for the fifth time or more.
“The City extending contracts longer and longer through negotiated acquisition extensions clearly exploits a tool meant only to be used as a last resort,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “By kicking the can further down the road through NAEs, the Adams Administration is abusing its contract extension powers to avoid properly updating contract terms and conditions for vendors, leading to outdated approaches to fulfilling services and worsening bureaucratic delays. The most responsible, least corruption-prone avenue for contracts is to re-open competitive bidding in an efficient timeframe, rather than nonprofits and service providers working on outdated terms that have been overextended to provide convenient continuity for an agency.”
In February 2025, the Comptroller’s Office produced a spotlight into the City’s contracting practices, finding that the Adams Administration failed to register contracts within a timely manner, worsening payment delays to vendors. Contract registration is the final step in the procurement process, and the City cannot pay vendors for services until their contracts are registered.
By contrast, the City’s use of NAEs reflects the struggles of the Adams Administration to release new solicitations at the beginning of the procurement process. NAEs should only be used in special instances when an agency is unable to timely procure a replacement contract or a project takes longer than expected to complete. However, the City frequently utilizes NAEs to avoid negotiating new contract terms with vendors. When agencies use NAEs to extend the same contracts over and over again, they lock providers into obsolete reimbursement rates. The City also ends up overtaxing the limited capacity of vendors and agency staff by forcing them to process contract documents multiple times over a period of years instead of just once.
The Comptroller’s report discovered that the City uses NAEs disproportionately in the Human Services (HS) sector, accounting for 87 percent of registered NAEs contracts since 2010. Human Services–from homeless shelters to food pantries to childcare programs– provide indispensable resources to New York City residents, so agencies often use NAEs to ensure short-term continuity to avoid any interruptions in service. While NAEs prevent HS from immediately discontinuing certain services when the contract is over, NAEs disadvantage agencies and providers in the long run and hinder proper contract renegotiations with updated terms.
Other key findings of the report include:
- The City uses NAEs to extend contracts for multiple “generations” beyond the original contracts’ end date.
- From FY 2022 to FY 2024, the City nearly doubled the rate of NAEs extending their original contracts by at least five times, from 12% to 24%. One Department of Social Services (DSS) NAE extended its original contract for an 11th time.
- Contracts in the HS industry are predominantly registered late.
- HS contracts arrive for registration later than usual. In FY 2024, the City registered nine-in-ten HS contracts late.
- Agencies that keep vital services flowing to constituents use NAEs the most.
- Agencies like the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), and the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) all heavily rely on NAEs to continue services uninterrupted. 218 out of 913 DSS contracts (or roughly 24%) used NAEs. Roughly 19% of ACS and DYCD contracts used NAEs.
For the full report visit: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/deja-vu-all-over-again-nycs-over-reliance-on-extension-contracts/
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