Mineola, NY – As part of a multi-levered strategy to combat corruption and promote transparency in the County contracting process, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran today announced an innovative pilot partnership with Exiger, a leader in technology-enabled regulatory, financial crime, risk and compliance solutions. This partnership will give Nassau County access to Exiger’s cutting-edge Insight 3PM platform, which will streamline due diligence research on current and potential vendors who do business with the County. Nassau County will be the first municipality to use this third party monitoring technology to vet its vendors. Another groundbreaking step in the County Executive’s reform initiative, this new technology is a powerful tool that will enhance the efficiency and capability of the County’s compliance team.
“Nassau County has long been plagued by a culture of corruption and favoritism due to lack of controls and transparency in the county’s contracting and procurement process,” said County Executive Curran. “The partnership we’re announcing with Exiger today is another important step my Administration is taking to restore trust and fiscal integrity in County government. Nassau will be the first municipality to utilize this technology – We’re bringing new solutions to age-old problems so that our residents can be assured that their tax dollars are being spent as ethically and responsibly as possible.”
Historically, due diligence research on vendors in Nassau County has been limited to manual searches of open-source records. Exiger’s Insight 3PM platform, powered by proprietary artificial intelligence technology, DDIQ, automates searches for publicly accessible adverse information, potential ethical conflicts, and undisclosed investigations. The platform will generate customized reports based on Nassau County’s specific needs and concerns and will give the County’s compliance professionals access to information from global databases including Bloomberg, LexisNexis, and World Compliance.
This 18-month pilot program with Exiger’s Government Services business unit gives Nassau County access to Insight 3PM and will involve periodic reviews with Exiger to further improve the County’s use of Insight 3PM. Nassau County will be the first municipality to use such cutting-edge technology to review and track its vendors.
“Nassau County is poised to transform its vendor vetting process by becoming the first government entity to use Insight 3PM’s cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, including both Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing technologies,” said Mike Cherkasky, Exiger Executive Chairman. “There is an enormous amount of data that must be analyzed in order to know the background and history of potential vendors and their owners. Our technology makes the entire process more efficient and comprehensive, ultimately allowing Nassau County to make better and more ethical buying decisions.”
“Once again we are stepping up and combatting potential corruption with modernization and technology,” Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman said. “Working with the County Executive, we are moving the County forward and using cutting-edge technology to make sure that taxpayer dollars do not go to irresponsible vendors so that we can deliver the best services to residents.”
The pilot officially launches on March 4th, 2019 and will involve periodic reviews with Exiger to further improve the use of Insight 3PM in Nassau County.
The pilot partnership is part of a multi-levered anti-corruption agenda advanced by County Executive Curran, including the following key initiatives:
- Signing an executive order establishing a zero-tolerance policy for county employees involved with procurement or contracting procedures accepting gifts of any kind from county vendors, no matter how small
- Signing into law an ordinance to remove an anti-competitive fee for vendors seeking to do business with Nassau County. Since the fee removal went into effect on January 1st 2019, the number of vendors registered has risen from 960 on December 31st 2018 to 1,727 as of February 26th, 2018 – an 80% increase.
- Revising County ethics policies to make it clear that all procurement professionals are responsible for not only conducting themselves with the utmost integrity, but also must report any observed act of criminality, waste, fraud, or abuse in any procurement. Developing an online workflow to enable vendors to submit claims online and have them reviewed and approved electronically by the Compliance Department and the Comptroller’s Office. These changes will introduce more efficiency into the claims process, while providing additional oversight and audit trails built into the functionality.
- Collaborating with the Comptroller’s office to develop Nassau County Open Checkbook, a new cloud-based web portal that creates for the first time an easy to-read online checkbook that details more than a billion dollars of annual County outside expenditures.