Several members of the New York City Council this week raised concerns about the city's plans to provide prepaid debit cards to migrants, the New York Post reported.
The city awarded a $53 million no-bid contract to the tech finance startup Mobility Capital Finance to provide prepaid debit cards to recent arrivals, a deal that the Post reports could earn the company almost $2 million in profits if the pilot program is expanded in its second phase, as is planned.
"I certainly have never seen this," Councilmember Gale Brewer, a Democrat from Manhattan, said after being presented with details of the plan by the Post.
"I can't believe they wouldn't have gotten a better price," she said, referring to city hall, and noting that the council was informed "that everything would be going out for bid in the future."
"Something's wrong with this deal, and taxpayers are getting fleeced," Councilman Bob Holden, a Democrat from Queens, said on Thursday after reviewing details of the contract. "These no-bid emergency contracts and profit-driven bids are out of control, and we need to reevaluate how we do business as a city."
"A vig [vigorish] of this size on top of fees, due diligence must be done," former city Comptroller Scott Stringer told the newspaper. "The reason we have a competitive [request for proposals] is it produces competitive contracts. The RFP [request for proposal] process is simply best practice."