It’s a geek tragedy.
While the city vows to save and create jobs for recession-ravaged New Yorkers, one of its biggest contractors is importing techies from India, instead of hiring local computer nerds.
IBM won a $1.9 million contract with the Department of Finance to analyze its old main databases so they can be improved, but the company has transported “consultants” from Mumbai and other parts of India to do most of the work.
At least 17 employees hired by an IBM subsidiary in India have worked in New York since October, inspecting the city’s computer systems, which hold property and other tax records, insiders said.
“It was a dream come true,” said Sunny Amin, 25, who traveled from his Mumbai home to the Big Apple — his first US visit.
Amin, who has an engineering degree from a college in Aurangabad, landed his first job with IBM-India.
While a bit lost at first, Amin said, he rented an apartment in Parsippany, NJ, and commuted by bus. After nine months on Wall Street, he’s being sent to another IBM job, in Minneapolis, on his three-year work visa.
Amin would not reveal his pay but did say, “I make about 10 times more than I would in India.”
In contract documents, IBM says it pays its technical consultants at rates ranging from $26.24 to $278 an hour, not counting travel and living expenses.
It could not be learned whether IBM pays its Mumbai recruits the same rates, though watchdogs say US firms hire thousands of workers from India because they come cheap. IBM did not return calls.
But Amin’s fortune means US citizens get shut out of well-paying jobs, critics charge.
“It’s like a slap in the face,” said Robert Ajaye, president of Local 2627, a union of city-employed computer specialists. “We have people in house who could do this job.”
Instead, he said, some city staffers have had to “translate” for Indian techies lacking English skills.
Finance spokesman Sam Miller defended the contract.
“Our systems are so old that there are not many companies that have the ability to work on them. IBM does,” he said.