NYC should recoup $11M of nearly $14M that was wasted due to shoddy oversight of controversial migrant contractor DocGo: audit

The city wasted millions in taxpayer dollars by giving controversial migrant services firm DocGo free rein over its $432 million no-bid contract, allowing it to bill for unused hotel rooms and uneaten meals, according to a scathing new audit by Comptroller Brad Lander.

A review of invoices for the first two months of the company’s emergency contract in May and June 2023 found that nearly 80% of the first $13.8 million — about $11 million — paid to DocGo ❀during that time should be rec♏ouped by the city.

“I just frankly am really shocke༺d by how little scrutiny there was,” Lander, who just announced he would be running in the 2025 Democratic primary against Mayor Eric Adams, said during 𝓡a press conference Tuesday. 

“They did not carefully scrutinize, as f🔯ar as we can tell, any of th💜e invoices.”

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Payments fo𝓀r l🌜odging, security, food and other services were inflated or lacked documentation while oversight of subcontractors was nil, the audit said. 

The contract and services were overseen by the city Department of Housing Preservat😼ion & Development (HPD).

“Their failure to review the invoices seriously jus𝐆t represents a really callous disregard f🐠or taxpayer dollars” Lander said.  

The $13.8 million paid out to DocGo during the first two months of its contract “were not allowable under♔ 💙the contract or they were not adequately supported by documentation as required,” the audit found.

Of t❀he $13.8 million paid out, more than $9 million was intended for DocGo subcontractors that were not pre-approved by HPD, the analysis said.

“If this error rate were applied across the $168 million subsequently paid to DocGo for services asꦡ of June 12, 2024🎐, the overpayment amount could reach $134.4 million,” the report said.

Lander’s audit flatly claims the COVID-supplier-turned-m😼igrant-shelter provider was unqualified to handle the challenging task of serving thousands of asylum seekers, including providing hotel rooms, food and other services to migrants, many in suburban and upstate inns north of the Big Apple.

“DocGo lacks experience in providing any type of emergency housing,” the audit said.

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The report noted that Lander last September rejected the contract between HPD and DocGo, but Adams overrode his objections. Previous reported complaints include DocGo using unlicensed security guards and staffers mistreating asylum seekers.

The completion of the hard-hitting probe comes just a week after Lander announced his candidacꦕy for mayor, which pits the lefty progressive against Adamꦿs, the moderate incumbent, in the Democratic primary next June.

Sources said the unusual situation of a sitting comptroller running for mayor seeking re-election raises concerns over whether Lander is fulfilling his constitutional duties or u𓄧sing his auditing🔴 power as a political club to embarrass rival Adams.

Adams’ office claimed Lander was being nitpicky during an unrelenting migrant crisis.

“At the height of an unprecedented international humanitarian crisis, workers from across the city government were called upon to take swift, decisive action to meet this defining moment with compassion and care for others,” a mayoral spokesman said.

“As mothers needed baby formula and health care workers needed supplies, we put people’s wellbeing before paperwork.”

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The Adams rep continued, “The comptroller can nitpick the first two months of an emergency contract over a year after the fact and long after new safeguards were put in place, but he cannot claim to have saved a single migrant family from sleeping on the streets.

“We will continue to pay our partners for the work they do on behalf of the city, particularly amidst a humanitarian crisis.”

Lander insisted Tuesday that the DocGo audit and others his office conducts aren’t politically motivated or tied to his mayoral run.

“I don’t conduct the audit. We have an independent set of auditors who are civil servants,” Lander said.

“We started this audit last fall and we announced it to them [the Adams administration] and the whole world what we were doing. That’s the job of the comptroller.”

HPD officials acknowledged they could have initially better handled the DocGo contract and accepted and implemented some of the comptroller’s recommendations, while disputing and rejecting others.

The audit said DocGo and the city paid more to subcontractors for security covera🌺ge at the hote﷽ls than stipulated in the contract.

HPD officials disputed the characterization that it back-stamped approval for additional security, claiming the memo cited in the audit written months later “memorialized” verbal approval that had been provided previously.

The audit said the city paid DocGo almost $1.7 million for “vacant rooms” in hotels during this two-month period while the firm collected $408,680 in commissions.

HPD also paid DocGo $971,967 for the delivery of 259,961 meals during May and June 2023, but the population of migrants at the shelters shows that only 160,431 meals﷽ were needed, 🌼according to the audit.

HPD bashed the report as a political hi🐈t job by 𒊎Lander.

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“The report egregiously mischaracterizes HPD memos and fails to acknowledge facts that don’t reinforce their politically convenient narrative,” said HPD spokesperson Ilana Maier.

“HPD staff and its vendors worked around the clock, seven days a week, to make sure that the thousands of people suddenly on the city’s doorstep were safe, sheltered, and fed. When HPD made decisions quickly, it made them compassionately; and when procedures didn’t yet exist and documentation wasn’t available in the moment, HPD exercised good judgment rather than risking lives for bureaucratic steps.”

DocGo defended its performance.

“New York City has been faced with a national migrant crisis for two years, and DocGo has helped the city navigate this complex emergency by rapidly scaling and financing large programs to move more quickly in response to urgent situations.

“While this program has faced a highly charged politicized environment, DocGo is proud of how we served 32,000 unique asylum seekers through our work across HPD programs, and we are proud of our work serving asylum seekers in need in our hometown of New York City,” a DocGo spokesman said.

“We stand by the quality of our program.”