NYCHA will be forced to answer questions about its online sale of brand-new supplies after the city controller’s office slapped the agency with subpoenas.
Controller Scott Stringer demanded the documents hours after the Daily News revealed NYCHA’s unusual yard sale. And a city councilman announced oversight hearings into the cash-strapped Housing Authority’s newest effort to raise funds.
The News revealed that over the past year, NYCHA quietly sold off hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused supplies — everything from office furniture to toner cartridges to attaché cases — for a fraction of their value. Stringer’s team had been auditing NYCHA’s inventory over the past few months. He was dismayed to learn of the housecleaning sale in the middle of his audit. “The latest allegations in the Daily News raise serious concerns about whether NYCHA is protecting and maximizing its resources,” Stringer said.
In a letter to NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye announcing the subpoenas, Stringer noted that the Housing Authority “has not been forthcoming” about its inventory-sale plans. “We have sought and require complete and timely information of actions related to this audit,” Stringer wrote. “Unfortunately, we have not always received either prompt or complete information from NYCHA.”
He said The News’ investigation “raises serious questions about how the current inventory disposal process is being carried out.”
City Council Public Housing Committee Chairman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) said Wednesday morning that he’d hold a hearing on “the waste in NYCHA’s procurement and inventory systems” and question the Housing Authority on its sale of unused items. “Given NYCHA’s scarce funds and resources, why did the Housing Authority allow some of the supplies to go unused for so long?” he asked.
Following a NYCHA board meeting Wednesday, Olatoye (right) said she could not say how much merchandise is still sitting unused and unopened in NYCHA warehouses. Olatoye said the problem — which she described as “poor business practices around purchasing” — predated her tenure and said the agency is now deciding what’s useful and what should be sold.
“This is the best practice that most organizations do every year,” she said. “NYCHA is catching up and really trying to be smart about what we have, what we order.”
