Governments have never been known for efficiency. And frankly, there are times when efficiency should take a back seat to effectiveness.
But there are, or should be, limits. And even more importantly, we should recognize that governments often don’t seek efficiency, but rather embrace inefficiency as a way to enable graft.
That’s sure what it looks like New York City did with its COVID policies. As with so much that is COVID related, the “emergency” was used as an excuse to spend big money and spread the wealth around.
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) July 7, 2023
The job of the NYC Comptroller is to examine and bitch about the excessive spending on the myriad programs on which the city spends oodles of money.
The job of politicians seems to be to ignore the warnings and keep on spending money. If and when they get into trouble for excessive spending they can beg to be bailed out by the state legislature or the feds, allowing them to spend even more money that winds up in the pockets of their buddies.
Both sides seem to be pretty good at their jobs. The Comptroller regularly puts out reports about ridiculous spending, and the politicians keep giving him material to write about.
New York, NY – New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released an audit of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) handling of testing and vaccination services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, consistent with previous audits, highlights the lack of effective cost controls in the City’s emergency contracting.
DOHMH primarily relied on vendors to set staffing levels at testing and vaccination sites, instead of implementing a comprehensive monitoring plan with clear standards for assessing contractor performance. Relying on vendors rather than agency monitoring resulted in inadequate cost controls and inefficient staffing for sites, despite successfully establishing testing and vaccination services in communities most affected by COVID-19.
“Emergency contracting allows the City to stand up vital services in times of crisis, but demands heightened vigilance to safeguard the fiscal interests of the City. Our audit reveals significant weaknesses in the control mechanisms that impact past, present, and potentially future emergencies. By addressing these challenges head-on, agencies can better spend New York City’s taxpayer dollars wisely and efficiently, even in crises,” said Comptroller Brad Lander.
The audit’s review of over $200 million in invoices revealed a significant discrepancy in costs. While the average cost per test was $405, the prices DOHMH paid varied from $202 to $937 per test, a wide range depending on the location. Similarly, the average cost per vaccination per site ranged $169 to $2,423. Underutilized sites led to huge cost variations and inflated costs when a smaller volume of tests or vaccines were administered.
At certain sites, an excessive number of personnel unnecessarily escalated labor costs. Notably, the audit revealed significant findings: at the eight long-term testing sites, staff only administered a single test approximately every 1.61 hours open, and at the 23 long-term vaccination sites, staff administered one vaccination approximately every two hours.
One test per 1.6 hours and one vaccination every two hours. Sounds about right. I wonder what the pay rate was, and whether the employees exceeded the data limits on their phones by binge watching Netflix. Or were they Facebook fanatics?
Testing kits should have cost between $10 and $20 per, at retail prices. One would suppose that buying in bulk should have mean lower costs; so all that money went into salaries and the union employees who set the sites up. That’s a lot of labor cost to administer a few tests and inject a few vaccines.
Graft, my friends. Graft.
Costs to house migrants in hotels seem to be off the charts, although it is hard to pin down exact numbers. But a figure commonly thrown around and in the middle of the estimates is about $500/night per migrant. That works out to $15,000/month per migrant, which is a pretty hefty sum. I suspect that most NYC residents could live pretty comfortably in an apartment that charges that month.
The median household income in NYC is about $70k. The city is paying 2 1/2 times that just to house the migrants. If you factor in the age of most of the migrants, they are getting about 3 1/2 times as much for housing as the average 25 and under New Yorker gets paid, simply to pay for their room and board.
This is a recurring pattern in Blue cities. San Francisco runs tent encampments for some homeless people, and the city spends about $60,000 per tent a year. I guess that is cheaper than the housing costs for illegla migrants in New York, but it is a pretty hefty bill for managing a tent.
Taxpayers are too often taken in by claims that social programs are run for the benefit of the “clients.” This is simply not the case–look at how the clients never seem to get out of their terrible situations. The beneficiaries are the government employees and contractors, who are making bank off the misery of others.
Once migrants make it over the border–which shouldn’t be happening in anything like these numbers–we have to find a way to ensure they don’t simply become indigents on the streets. But it shouldn’t cost anywhere near $180,000 a year and they shouldn’t be living in upscale college dorms with wild sex parties, as appears to be happening in New York.
Helping the homeless is admirable, although real help would be cleaning them up, drying them out, getting them off the drugs, and ensuring that they get mental health care. None of that happens. Instead we hand out debit cards and crack pipes, give bureaucrats cushy jobs with great pensions, and keep the grift going.
Blue cities are run for the benefits of government workers, unions, and contractors who get sweet deals. “Clients” get scraps.
It’s disgusting, and will never stop. At least not until all the businesses and the Middle Class are driven out and the gravy train grinds to a halt. Then the grifters will still be sucking the marrow out of the bones.
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