$5.6 billion or fifty percent of the City's total contract commitments and other procurements. Of the $11.2 billion, ten agencies, all of which are also represented in the Top 100, accounted for 86 percent of the total dollar value.

FY 2006 TOP AGENCIES by Dollar Value (in millions): Children's Services: $1,831, Human Resources: $1,310, Environmental Protection: $1,280, Citywide Administrative Services: $1,011, Small Business Services: 787, Health & Mental Health: $749, Sanitation: $734, Design & Construction: $704, Information Technology: $693, Transportation: $602, All other agencies: $1,464, TOTAL: $11,168

 Significant City responsibilities have been delegated almost entirely to private not-for-profit and forprofit entities. The first contract providers to care for persons with HIV-AIDs. Foster care services, another example, has 30 large contracts among the Top 100. All 30 contracts were renewals of prior awards. In FY 2006, the City had, on average, 6,747 children in foster care, down from

28,215 in FY 2002. Another area where the private sector dominates is the transportation and disposal of municipal wastes. Fourteen of the Top 100 Contracts involve transporting municipal wastes to distant, mostly out-of-state sites where the wastes are and filled or otherwise disposed of. "Contracting with New York City is big business. Privatization in the areas of foster care, waste disposal and heath care are the rule, not the exception," said Center for New York City Law Director Ross Sandler.

 One unusual delegation is for the management and maintenance of Central Park. Parks renewed its contract with the Central Park Conservancy at a total of $39 million to be paid-out in annual installments over seven years. Environmental Protection, Transportation, and Design & Construction, the City's major construction agencies, all made the list, with DEP leading the list with fourteen contracts totaling $883 million.

 One measure of how successfully a City agency manages its construction projects is seen in the number and value of change orders required to be made during construction. The Mayor's Office of Contract Services reported that during FY 2006, City agencies filed 1,347 construction change orders. These orders collectively increased the cost of the related contracts by six percent. DEP and DOT led in dollar value of change orders, while Design and Construction led in number of orders.

The Mayor's Office reported that, on average, the City takes 125 days to cycle a competitively bid contract. Agencies differ significantly, however, in the speed of their contract cycle. Human Resources required 339 days, while the speediest, Sanitation, cycled its contracts on average in 58 days.

 CONSTRUCTION CHANGE ORDERS FY 2006:

Agency (In order of dollar amount): Number of Change Orders, Dollars (000)

* Environmental Protection: 111 change orders, $81,752

* Transportation: 143 change orders, $51,426

* Design & Construction: 589 change orders, $44,839

* Parks: 265 change orders, $9,717

* Sanitation: 120 change orders, $9,693

* Citywide Administrative Services: 89 change orders, $3,595

* All Others: 30 change orders, $6,046

 To request a PDF of the complete list of the Top 100 Contracts, please email nguida@nyls.edu