City of Boston Contract Award

The City of Boston reports on our contract awards as part of our commitment to transparency and to growing pathways to equitable procurement for diverse suppliers. This dataset reports on our procurement contracts and other agreements, such as grants, from Fiscal Year 2019 through Fiscal Year 2026, Quarter 4.

A contract is an agreement between the City of Boston and a supplier to acquire supplies and services over $10,000. Contracts have an award value. This is the maximum dollar amount that a business can be paid, in total, over the life of the contract.

You can view an interactive dashboard of our procurement contract award at https://www.boston.gov/equitable-procurement. This dashboard does not report on non-procurement contracts or agreement types.

To learn more about the City's procurement and supplier diversity efforts, visit:

• https://www.boston.gov/procurement
• https://www.boston.gov/supplier-diversity

** Notes on the Data **

• In some circumstances, the City department name was not recorded on the electronic contract record.
• There are some instances where the description of the contract only references City identifiers, such as a bid or purchase order number.
• Some electronic contract records do not have information recorded in our administrative systems in order to accurately categorize them as a Procurement Contract. We have included these contracts as "Other Contracts".
• In the event of a discrepancy between the electronic contract record and the signed contract document, the signed contract document is the record of truth. There are some instances where these two may differ.

** Contract Categorization **

The City categorizes agreements into Procurement Contracts and Other Contracts to distinguish contracts entered through a procurement process from other types of agreements.

• Procurement Contract: An agreement between the City of Boston and a supplier to acquire supplies and services over $10,000. Procurement contracts are awarded through competitive or limited competition procurements.

  • Competitive Procurement: A City contract is awarded after a competitive evaluation of quotes, bids, or proposals. The City can either publicly invite suppliers or selectively invite several suppliers to submit a response.
  • Limited Competition Procurement: A City contract for an item or service that is not subject to all of the requirements outlined in Massachusetts public procurement laws. This includes exempt, sole source, and emergency procurements.

• Other Contract: Other types of contracts include Government-to-Government Agreements, Grants to Nonprofits, Loans, Revenue Contracts, Trusts or Gift Agreements, Special Education, Health Insurance, and Employment Agreements.

If you have questions about this data or would like to provide feedback, please use this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10_VGn3OEaa-JA5VJynZ9JKw-I3t0BAzw3ckv8rxVMLc/viewform?edit_requested=true