Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

The bill before me today is Introductory Number 983-A, sponsored at my request by Council Members Berman and O'Donovan. This legislation will reform the procedures for selecting the City's auditor.

Under the Charter, the City is required to have an independent certified public accounting firm perform an annual audit of the City's financial statements. Currently, the law allows the City to select an auditor only if the City receives at least two proposals from eligible firms.

The two-proposer rule that governs the audit procurement does not apply to any other contract the City enters into. Since there is no way for the City to control the number of bids it receives for a given contract, it does not make sense to prohibit the City from moving forward when it receives a single, acceptable proposal. This legislation will eliminate the two-proposer rule and allow the City to move forward with a contract even if only one firm makes an offer.

The bill will also eliminate the "term-limit" provision for audit firms. Under current law, no audit firm may serve as the City's auditor for more than eight consecutive years. The "term-limit" on auditor firms needlessly bars a past City auditor from again competing for the contract, limiting the field of eligible firms and decreasing competition. By eliminating the "term-limit" provision, this legislation will provide the City with the ability to consider bids from all qualified firms.

The two provisions of this legislation will sensibly make the rules governing the selection of an auditing firm more rationale and consistent with those that govern the way in which the City awards other contracts.

For the reasons previously stated, I will now sign the bill.

www.nyc.gov