Changes to Hillsborough MBE program likely
Published on 11/09/2012
Hillsborough County is planning on making changes to its Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) program in the coming months following criticism from MBEs and prime contractors regarding the county's MBE participation waiver and lenient good faith effort requirements.
At present, if a contractor with the lowest bid beats out the next-lowest bid by $200,000 or 15%, the county waives the MBE participation goals on the contract, effectively shutting out MBE subcontractors, suppliers, or vendors from the contract.
In cases where the waiver is not applicable, contractors that submit competitive bids and meet a contract's MBE participation goals can be easily pushed aside by a low bidder that fails to meet the goal but performs a good faith effort. Contractors and MBEs want the county to implement stricter good faith effort benchmarks to ensure that bidders are not using the rule to bypass MBE participation goals.
Officials will recommend to Hillsborough commissioners that the county eliminate the waiver and overhaul good faith effort requirements at a Nov. 15 board meeting. The commissioners are expected to do away with the waiver rule.
