NYC Drops $425 Million Migrant Contract – Unlicensed Guards

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander denied the city’s request for a $432 million no-bid contract with DocGo for migrant services, reports Legal Insurrection. No bid?

The city is besieged with illegal aliens since it became a sanctuary city – some of them are scary, and they are probably not asylum seekers.

Landor told Department of Housing & Preservation Development Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr.

I am writing to inform you that contract #20248801671 (the “Contract”), an emergency procurement for $432 million for services provided by Rapid Reliable Testing NY LLC, commonly known as DocGo Inc. (the “Vendor,” or “DocGo”), was reviewed by my Office, and is being returned to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (“HPD”) without approval due to numerous outstanding issues and concerns.

Please note, my Office does not make such a decision lightly. Since I took office as Comptroller on January 1, 2022, our Bureau of Contract Administration (BCA) has registered over 30,000 contracts submitted by City agencies; we have returned fewer than 75, or 0.22%. During the same period, we have approved 303 emergency contracts that have been submitted to our Office for review, 69 of which were specifically related to the asylum seeker crisis. This is the first emergency contract we have declined to approve.

DocGo was giving out vaccines, and suddenly morphed into migrant services – rapidly.

There were many serious concerns.

“There is little evidence to suggest that Rapid Reliable Testing NY LLC had the expertise to provide the services it has been contracted for, calling into question HPD’s vetting of the vendor’s prior experience and capacity that served as its purported basis for vendor selection,” wrote Lander.

In addition, contradictory statements made by HPD raise questions about both their selection and the fiscal ability to provide the described services.

In Section IV of the Written Emergency Determination (made pursuant to Section 3-06(c)(3) of the PPB Rules) included in the contract submission package, HPD indicates that Rapid Reliable Testing NY LLC “…was referred to HPD …” and “The vendor chosen confirmed having the capacity to arrange temporary housing and support services to help and aid asylum seekers arriving to New York.”

This appears to contradict statements made in the Application for Waiver that HPD submitted to our Office in July, seeking a cash advance of $4 million for this contract (a rare step that we have granted in two other asylum seeker related emergency procurements, but denied in this case).

They’ve been reading about DocGo’s reputation which recently made the news:

A number of alarming and adverse news articles further detail the inflation of the company’s financial value, interference with law enforcement, and workplace violations, both with respect to DocGo as well as Ambulnz, Inc., further raising concerns as to the failure to disclose referenced above, highlighting reasons why vendor responsibility is a key concern.

A New York Post article reported that DocGo hired over 50 unlicensed security guards for hotels in upstate New York housing migrants. DocGo hired three subcontractors to provide security services at the hotels without appropriate authorization and in violation of applicable law.

One of the subcontractors, Wawanda Investigations, had 36 unlicensed guards and another, Trace Assets had 16 without proper paperwork.

Gov. Kathy Hochul already ordered a review of DocGo: “To protect the safety and well-being of all New Yorkers, Governor Hochul ordered a State review of DocGo’s contract to provide services to asylum seekers and that review is ongoing.”

Erie County is one of three places that have hotels using security guards. There were two rapes in the hotel.

QUESTIONABLE MOTIVES

Also, CEO Anthony Capone told an investor that as one of the largest care providers for asylum seekers in the country, they have enough credibility to win a Border Patrol contract worth $4 billion.

Capone continued: “There’s almost no chance that there’s going to be federal legislation which solves this problem. Almost none. All you have to do is understand the dilemmas with each one of the solutions and know that it will not happen. It’s certainly not happening before the next election cycle. But I doubt it will ever happen.”

Yikes. This is the potential motivation and greed our open borders breeds. There goes taxpayer money.

Emphasis Added

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