John Liu: CityTime Just A Small Part Of Larger Investigation Of City IT Contracts

This could be a very interesting new year for the Mayor of Accountability:

The head of the city agency responsible for the oversight of the controversial CityTime payroll system is stepping down, and as City Comptroller John Liu told NY1 in an exclusive interview, the city is now conducting a wider inquiry.

The resignation of Joel Bondy, the executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration, is effective at the end of the month.

Last week, Bondy was suspended by the city amid a fraud scandal that alleges four outside consultants and two others stole $80 million in taxpayer money through kickbacks and overcharges.

The CityTime payroll project, which is designed to reform the timekeeping system for city workers, is now being overseen by Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith.

Speaking exclusively on today's "Inside City Hall," City Comptroller John Liu said Bondy's resignation is just a small part of an investigation of city contracts involving information technology.

"It is accepted, I think we move forward from here, there are still $80 million to recover for city taxpayers. Hopefully that's the extent of the problem," said Liu. "But more so, we need to get a handle on these large IT-related contracts with expensive consultants."

In that vein, Liu is calling for an overhaul of the Vendex system, which does background checks on people and companies that receive city contracts.

Let's see what the larger investigation into consultants and IT contracts okayed by Bloomberg uncovers.

I bet whatever Liu find, it won't end up in a Bloomberg for President campaign commercial.