NEW YORK—When the New York City government decided to look into who was being awarded procurement contracts and how often, they made some surprising discoveries.
After studying the state of minority and women-owned businesses (MWBE) in New York, they found that the number of city contracts those groups are awarded is smaller than expected.
Conducting what they describe as the first survey of its type, the City of New York quizzed 500 businesses about their experiences in being awarded city contracts.
They found that in 2012 alone, MWBEs were awarded a mere 5 percent of a $10.5 billion pie from city procurement contracts. The apparent inequality is in spite of the fact that MWBEs represent a whopping 40 percent of all businesses in the city.
New York has the most minority-owned businesses in the entire country—403,000—and those businesses are serious drivers of economic growth, according to the survey. U.S. Census data shows that those businesses have historically experienced steady growth at a rate that is about triple that experienced by businesses overall.
There were some other surprises for the city when they analyzed the survey results, including that only about one-quarter of responding businesses reported that they had ever been awarded a single city contract.
More than one-half of the businesses surveyed reported that the city does not provide enough support or resources to help them apply for contracts. Despite the fact that the Department of Small Business Services does host workshops, almost one-third of the survey respondents reported that they never attended the workshops because the events were inconveniently located or scheduled.
A report with the findings of the survey, “Growing Gotham: A Survey of New York City’s Minority and Women Business Enterprises and a Roadmap for Economic Growth,” was just released by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office.
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