Female entrepreneurs and people of color who own businesses are significantly less likely to get government contracts, according to a new 409-page study commissioned by the District.
Evaluating more than 1,000 businesses and $8 billion of contracts from 88 District agencies, the study found that there are “substantial disparities” between the businesses owned by people of color and women who are eligible for contracting activities and those that actually get them. It also shows that while many of these minority and women-owned companies struggle to win contracts, a small group of them snagged “exceptionally large” amounts of procurement dollars from the District.
“In order to be successful in winning public contracts in D.C., one of two situations needs to occur,” one anonymous business owner says in the report. “If you don’t either know the people involved and have a good relationship, or you don’t have that particular niche with the ‘minority’ that you need to have… the odds of getting that job are slim to none.”
D.C. Council allocated funding for the study in the city’s 2021 budget as a way to evaluate whether there were gender or racial disparities in the city’s business contracts.
“We have before us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink how we build more equitable and inclusive communities,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser about the project in 2021. “With this study, we can learn more about what’s working and what isn’t, and in doing so, create better opportunities for women and people of color who do business in D.C.”
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Sarah Y. Kim over at DCIST
