How We Buy Citywide - Department of Citywide Administrative Services

Department of Citywide Administrative Services


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How We Buy Citywide

Procurements by New York City mayoral agencies are governed by the Rules of the Procurement Policy Board (PPB). For an electronic version of the rules, and proposed and final rule amendments since the publication date, please visit the PPB’s webpage.

Competitive Sealed Bids

A competitive sealed bid (CSB) is used to solicit bids when a procurement value is expected to exceed $100,000. Vendors submit bids that are opened in a public meeting and the contract is awarded to the qualified responsible vendor submitting the lowest responsive bid.

Requests for Proposals

Requests for proposals (RFP) are solicitations for services to be performed where price is not the sole consideration for award.

Procurements are publicly advertised in The City Record, City Record Online (CROL), and sometimes on a City agency’s website. Vendors enrolled in CROL will automatically receive email notices when new CSB and RFP solicitations are posted that match their commodity/service selections.

An evaluation committee chooses the best proposals and then negotiates with the top proposers before making a selection and awarding a contract.

New York State Contracts

As City agencies often use New York State Office of General Services (OGS) contracts for a variety of goods and services, vendors may wish to apply to become New York State vendors. Information and application forms can be found on the New York State OGS website.

To find out more information on how we buy, please contact the DCAS director of purchasing operations at (212) 386-0423.