By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The MTA has a new way to save money — asking contractors to charge them less.
The MTA's Chief Operating Officer, Charles Monheim, announced Tuesday that the authority had struck a deal with its suppliers that will save $40 million over 12 years, without sacrificing anything, the New York Times reported.
Fifty of the companies that are currently contracted to provide goods and services to the MTA, including IBM and Goodyear, were asked to decrease their previously negotiated fees, and 43 agreed, the paper said.
“They will be given all the rights any contractor would receive," Monheim said, according to the Times, of the vendors that refused to give the MTA a break. "But we may be less inclined, where we have discretion, to be favorably disposed to them.”
The idea for the agency to ask contractors to lower their fees came from Accenture, a consulting firm that itself received a $115 million contract from the authority in February, the paper noted.
Not only will Accenture keep the $115 million owed to them, they will receive an additional $3.2 million in commission for this most recent money-saving recommendation, according to the Times.
