ALBANY – The effort by New York State to help increase the number of minority and women-owned businesses that contract with the state is proving to be successful.
That’s according to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who’s released an end of the year progress report on New York State’s commitment to connecting minority and women-owned businesses – Also known as MWBEs. The report showing the state had surpassed its goal of providing 20 percent of state contracts to MWBEs.
The Governor announced in October that the utilization of MWBEs in state contracts had reached a record 21.06 %. In all, $1.5 billion in contracts from a total of 97 public agencies and authorities were awarded to MWBEs in FY 2012-1013. While overall government spending is down from 2011, the amount earned by MWBEs is up from 1.1 billion in 2010-11 and from 486 million in 2006-7.
In 2011, Governor Cuomo established by executive order a statewide team to explore ways to eliminate barriers and expand the participation MWBEs in state contracting. The measure was a swift response to a 2010 disparity study that concluded that state MWBEs were “suffered business-related discrimination in larger numbers and with statistically significantly greater frequency than non MWBEs.”
Leave a Reply