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New York City releases Making the Grade report for 2021

New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer has released the annual Making the Grade report for fiscal year 2021. The report is issued by his office and grades City agencies according to their utilization of minority- and woman-owned business enterprises (or MWBEs), as well as aggregating the grades into a City-wide grade. While the Comptroller gave the City a "C" grade for fiscal years 2019 and 2020, in 2021 the City-wide grade has fallen to a "C-".

The report found that in fiscal year 2021, the City spent a total of $1.27 billion with MWBEs, of which $1.166 billion was awarded by means of contracts. As the City awarded a total $30.4 billion in contracts during that fiscal year, 3.8 percent of that total was awarded to MWBEs. The total amount spent with MWBEs has risen by $261 million from fiscal year 2020 (and an increase of $900 million relative to fiscal year 2014, the first year the Making the Grade report was issued), but 84 percent of all City-certified MWBEs received no City spending during fiscal year 2021, and the percent of MWBEs receiving such funding has never exceeded 22 percent since fiscal year 2015.

Across City agencies, most received either a "C" (twelve agencies) or a "D" (thirteen agencies) for their MWBE utilization, although two received an "A" (the Commission on Human Rights, and the Department for the Aging) and the Department of Transportation received an "F", for spending less than five percent of its eligible contract dollars with MWBEs. Additionally, utilization of MWBEs through the Small Purchase Method fell to $56.3 million, a decrease of $7.4 million from the previous year, despite the fact that the limit on eligible small purchases was raised to $500,000 in 2020.

Recommendations made by the report for remedying these under-utilizations and inequities include: the appointment of executive-level Chief Diversity Officers by all incoming City officials; adoption of the Rooney Rule, under which all cabinet-level positions must include women and people of color in the search process; a full racial equity audit of each City agency; the release by the incoming mayor of a plan for closing the gap between total certified MWBEs and MWBEs receiving City contract dollars; and MWBE legislation from the New York City Council with the aim of getting City agencies to set more aggressive MWBE goals on their contracts.

"[It] is clear that the City [has] abundant opportunities to address the systemic inequities experienced by communities of color especially as we continue to rebuild our economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic," Comptroller Stringer said in a press release accompanying the release of the report.

Read the full Making the Grade report at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/making-the-grade/reports/making-the-grade-2021.

Read the press release on the report from the Comptroller's office at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-annual-making-the-grade-report-reveals-city-fails-to-do-business-with-more-than-80-percent-of-m-wbes/.