Metro has again fallen short of its goal for hiring diverse contractors

Metro has fallen short of its goal for contracting with businesses owned by minorities and women for the third straight year, according to preliminary data released by the agency — even after it hired a senior-level administrator to improve its performance.

Each year, Metro releases statistics on how much contracting money it awards to small businesses and those owned by women or underrepresented minorities, part of its requirements for receiving federal grant money. There’s a lot of money at stake: In a six-month period last year, Metro awarded more than $200 million to independent contractors.

The rationale for the federal requirement is that the millions Metro pays to contractors should benefit people from different communities and those who have historically been barred or discouraged from doing big business with the government.

Metro has not performed well. For the 2015 federal fiscal year, Metro set a goal to award at least 25 percent of its contracting dollars to minority- or woman-owned businesses; it hit 17.4 percent, according to recent numbers provided by Metro. The next year, the agency lowered its goal for contracting with “disadvantaged business enterprises” (DBEs) to 22 percent, according to a recent Metro documents. Performance dropped to 11 percent.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-has-again-fallen-short-of-its-goal-for-hiring-diverse-contractors/2018/01/20/00b0ad86-fbb8-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html