In November, the State Comptroller’s Office approved 1,460 contracts for state agencies and public authorities worth $ 2.5 billion and approved nearly 2.3 million payments of worth over $ 10.5 billion. The Bureau rejected 119 contracts and related transactions valued at $ 160.8 million and nearly 5,700 payments valued at over $ 8.3 million, mainly for errors, insufficient justification of charges and inappropriate payments. More information on these contracts and payments is available on Open Book New York.

Major contracts approved

Executive room

• $ 5.1 million with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP for legal services.
• $ 2.5 million with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP for legal services.

General Service Office – Design and Construction

• $ 6.9 million with Fratello Construction Corp. to rehabilitate the Bronx Armory in Bronx County.
• $ 5 million with Burns Bros. Contractors LLC to provide a direct digital control energy management system to Riverview Correctional Institution in St. Lawrence County.
• $ 2 million with Bunkoff General Contractors Inc. to rehabilitate bathrooms at Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County.

health department

• $ 154.5 million for staffing COVID-19 vaccination and testing sites, including $ 137.3 million with Essey LLC and $ 17.2 million with Westchester County Health Care Corp.
• $ 20.8 million with Quest Diagnostics Inc. for COVID-19 testing of state employees.

State University of New York

• $ 7.6 million with All-Con Contracting Corp. for the rehabilitation of Knapp Hall at SUNY Farmingdale.
• $ 1.2 million with Dixon Schwabl Advertising Inc. for media planning and buying services at SUNY Brockport.

Department of Transportation

• $ 71.4 million with Peter Scalamandre & Sons Inc. for safety and mobility improvements on Route 347 in Suffolk County.
• $ 29.5 million with Perfetto Contracting Company, Inc. for ramp realignment and construction of a new exit ramp on the I-95 / Pelham Parkway interchange in Bronx County.
• $ 18.2 million with Cold Spring Construction Co. for pavement resurfacing and the replacement of six bridge decks on Highways 390 and 104 in Monroe County.
• $ 7.9 million with Callanan Industries Inc. for the paving of Highways 32, 199 and 209 in Ulster County.
• $ 5.4 million with Rifenburg Construction Inc. for intersection safety improvements and reconstruction in Albany and Schenectady counties.
• $ 4.1 million with WSP USA Inc. for construction inspection services on the Long Island Freeway in Queens County.
• $ 1.3 million with Twin Tier Constructors Inc. for the replacement of the bridge deck on Highway 415 over the Cohocton River in Steuben County.

Major payments approved

Refunds and tax credits

• $ 646.3 million for 166,389 personal income tax refunds.
• $ 297.3 million for 19,744 corporate and other tax refunds.
• $ 5.8 million for 7,150 property tax credits.

New York State Attorney General’s Office

• $ 802,000 to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP for legal services.

Child and Family Services Office

• $ 135.3 million for the Child Care Stabilization Grant.
• $ 5.1 million to child care providers for the Essential Worker Scholarship Program to provide care for the children of essential workers.

New York City University

• $ 1.9 million to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including computer equipment and cleaning supplies and materials.

Civil Service Department

• $ 295.2 million to CVS Caremark to provide drug benefit services to the Empire, Excelsior and Student Employee Health plans.
• $ 36.1 million to Beacon Health Options Inc. for Mental Health and Addiction Program Benefit Services for the Empire Plan.

State Department of Education

• $ 1 billion in general assistance to 462 school districts.
• $ 1.6 million in excess cost assistance for school-aged special education students in three school districts.

State Empire Development Corporation

• $ 207.5 million for the Small Business Takeover Grant program.
• $ 6 million to Onondaga County for regional economic development projects in central New York City.
• $ 2.7 million to the University of Rochester for part of the cost of research and development operations and the salaries of professors and staff at the Rochester Data Science Consortium.
• $ 2 million to the Utica Harbor Point Development Corporation for a portion of the costs of constructing and renovating the bulkheads at Utica Harbor Point.
• $ 1.5 million to the Adirondack North Country Sports Council for a portion of the cost of working capital expenditures for upgrades in support of the 2023 World University Winter Games.
• $ 1.5 million to the Saranac Lake Civic Center, Inc. for a portion of the design, engineering, construction, furniture and equipment costs to modernize the Saranac Lake Civic Center to support accommodation commitments of the Center for the 2023 World University Winter Games.
• $ 1 million to JMA Tech Properties LLC for a portion of the costs of building renovations and purchasing machinery and equipment for 5G manufacturing facilities in Onondaga County.

Gaming Commission

• $ 11.3 million for the distribution of gaming revenues from Tioga Downs, Rivers, Montreign and Del Lago casinos to 26 local governments.
• $ 8.1 million for compact payments from tribal states to Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Lewis, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego and Otsego counties.

General Service Office

• $ 9.8 million for hourly IT services, including $ 2.1 million for Knowledge Builders Inc., $ 1.2 million for MVP Consulting Plus Inc. and $ 6.5 million for 30 other vendors.

health department

• $ 32.6 million to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including ambulance services, application development, call centers and temporary staffing services.
• $ 29.8 million to Maximus Inc. for assistance with the Health Benefit Exchange, including insurance enrollment and call center operations.

Ministry of Labour

• $ 275 million for payments under the Unemployment Insurance, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Federal Pandemic Compensation, Mixed Income Unemployment Compensation and Loss Assistance programs salary.
• $ 1.4 million for the Excluded Labor Fund program.

Office of Mental Health

• $ 1.1 million to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including temporary staffing services.

State University of New York

• $ 3.4 million to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including administrative and clerical services and laboratory and medical supplies and equipment.

Temporary help and disability office

• $ 146.6 million for the Emergency Rent Assistance Program.
• $ 19.6 million for the Landlord Rental Assistance Program.

Other refusals of payment and other cost recoveries

The OSC has rejected refunds and tax credits valued at over $ 1.8 million. The controller’s auditors also recovered more than $ 62,000 from suppliers with debts to the government and withheld payments of nearly $ 253,000 pending resolution of disputes between contractors and prime contractors.

Cumulatively through November for calendar year 2021, the Office of the Comptroller approved 15,590 contracts worth $ 165.9 billion and approved over 173.3 million payments worth over $ 185 billion, including over 154.5 million unemployment insurance payments valued at nearly $ 43.9 billion. The office rejected 1,435 contracts and related transactions valued at $ 5.6 billion and nearly 223,400 payments valued at nearly $ 270.5 million, mostly due to errors, irregularities or lack of documentation.

Track state and local government spending at Open Book New York. As part of State Comptroller DiNapoli’s open data initiative, search millions of state and local government financial records, track state contracts, and find the most requested data.