#CUNY yanks $3 million no-bid COVID contract amid criticism

The CUNY board of trustees on Monday yanked a planned $3 million no-bid COVID-19 contract with powerhouse consulting firm McKinsey & Co. after facing criticism that it was unnecessary.

Under the contract, McKinsey is supposed to help the City University’s college campuses with their fall reopening.

But the no-bid contract for two months of work raised eyebrows because the colleges had already submitted their fall reopening proposals and CUNY has its own Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy to help campuses with safeguards, critics said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration also brought on McKinsey in April 2020 to address issues leading up to the state’s eventual reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The consulting firm worked with state Department of Health officials on a controversial report on COVID nursing-home deaths that was later rewritten by Cuomo’s aides to hide the number of fatalities, according to a report.

The low-balling of nursing-home deaths is the subject of state and federal probes.

McKinsey also agreed in February to pay $573 million to settle allegations that it fueled the opioid epidemic when it helped Purdue Pharma boost sales of the drug.

“I move to table the resolution [to approve the McKinsey contract],” CUNY board chairman Bill Thompson said during the governing trustees specially scheduled meeting.

The trustees then went into executive session.

The McKinsey contract had not been discussed at prior CUNY public hearings or by the board review committees.

The no-bid deal ticked off lawmakers and faculty.

“Speaking of things that make you go hmmm — $3 million for two months of high-priced consultants on a plan for which there are already enough highly paid CUNY officials, while students continue to suffer from a shortage of full-time professional faculty,” state Sen.John Liu (D-Queens), the former city comptroller who chairs the senate’s panel on New York City education, told The Post ahead of the vote..

“This is not what we just increased the CUNY budget for,” added Liu, referring to the recently passed state budget.

John Jay College Professor Elizabeth Hovey also sent an e-mail blast to CUNY officials before the vote under the subject heading, “Don’t Spend $3Mill on McKinsey – use CUNY expertise and value Students.”