Participation vs Real Participation of MWBEs in New York City
Comptroller Stringer Releases Report for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE)
New York City Comptroller Stringer’s Report “Making the Grade” provides a more detailed look at exactly where the City has spent money using Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) firms. For the second year in a row, NYC has received a report card grade of D+.
This grade is a reflection of what New York City has done and still needs to do in order to increase real MWBE participation within the agencies. For the 2016 fiscal year, the City procured $15.3 billion in goods and services and only 4.8 percent went to MWBEs. The City has focused its attention on promoting and awarding more contracts to women-owned owned firms, but according to the report only $181 million dollars was spent by agencies to these firms. The City has responded that they believe this report does not tell the whole story.
The City has done a great job encouraging more businesses to become certified as well as promoting money available to MWBEs, but there still seems to be a real participation issue. MWBEs are not able to find city contracts. They are spending more time searching through portals to find RFPs that match their capabilities and have MWBE goal requirements than they are completing those contracts. Today, there are still agencies that are not including MWBE participation goals on their RFPs.
With the introduction of new City Council legislation, an announcement by the Mayor of a 30% Citywide MWBE participation goal and the opening of the Mayor’s Office of MWBE, the city has made great strides in following the State’s successful model for MWBE procurement.
“We praise the Mayor for his efforts to change the playing field but, more needs to be done in order for MWBEs to be able to compete on a City level,” said Capalino’s Senior Vice President Tunisha W. Walker. “The private sector has been working with MWBEs to identify better ways to find RFPs and navigate through city agencies. There are opportunities for the city to work with private sector to find innovative ways to help businesses increase the real participation of MWBEs in City contracting.”
Read Comptroller Stringer’s Report “Making the Grade” here (PDF): http://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Making-the-Grade-2016.pdf
Capalino’s MWBE team has made great strides to promote business opportunities and RFPs with MWBE participation on a City and State levels. To learn more about our services, contact Tunisha W. Walker at tunisha@nullcapalino.com.
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