The State of Minority- and Women- Owned ... - Cleveland.com

B. M/WBE Utilization
M/WBE Utilization and Disparity in City of Cleveland Contracting Activity
For this Study, we examined 23,874 prime contracts and 2,635 associated subcontracts awarded
during the FY 2006-2010 time period. These contracts have a total award value of $1.16 billion
and a total payment value of $893.7 million. 303 Of these, 34 prime contracts and 248 associated
subcontracts had federal assistance and were subject to USDOT DBE Program. These contracts
had a total award value of $89.7 million and a total paid value of $76.1 million. The balance of
the contracts were locally-funded (See also Tables 3.1A-3.1C).
NAICS codes, M/WBE status, and detailed race and gender status for the prime contractors and
subcontractors included in the Master Contract/Subcontract Database were established through
extensive computer-assisted cross-referencing of firms in our database with firms in (a) the City
of Cleveland’s directory of certified MBEs and FBEs, (b) the master directory of M/WBEs
assembled for this study, (c) Dun & Bradstreet, (d) company profiles drawn from American
Business Information, Hoover’s, Standard & Poors, and other sources, and (e) the results of our
race/gender misclassification/non-classification surveys.
During the study period, as a group, we found that M/WBEs were awarded 21.57 percent and
paid 20.95 percent of all contract and subcontract dollars in construction; awarded 32.21 percent
and paid 30.57 percent of all contract and subcontract dollars in AE-CRS; awarded 24.52 percent
and paid 25.97 percent of all contract and subcontract dollars in Services; and awarded 7.83
percent and paid 6.71 percent of all contract and subcontract dollars in Commodities. Altogether,
M/WBEs were awarded 19.21 percent and paid 18.82 percent of all contract and subcontract
dollars during the study period. Among M/WBEs, firms owned by African Americans earned the
largest fraction of contracting and subcontracting dollars, followed in descending order by firms
owned by nonminority females, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and Native Americans (see
Tables 7.1 and 7.2).
Restricting the data to federally-assisted contracts and associated subcontracts, we found that
DBEs were awarded 16.78 percent and paid 16.49 percent of contract and subcontract dollars in
construction; awarded 25.57 percent and paid 23.88 percent of contract and subcontract dollars
in AE-CRS; awarded 25.49 percent and paid 22.25 percent of contract and subcontract dollars in
Services; and awarded 21.88 percent and paid 26.36 percent of contract and subcontract dollars
in Commodities. 304 Altogether, DBEs were awarded 18.23 percent and paid 17.03 percent of all
federally-assisted contract and subcontract dollars during the study period. Among DBEs, firms
owned by nonminority females earned the largest fraction of contracting and subcontracting
dollars, followed in descending order by firms owned by Asians/Pacific Islanders, African
Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans (see Tables 7.3 and 7.4).
Restricting the data to locally-funded contracts and associated subcontracts, we found that
M/WBEs were awarded 22.29 percent and paid 21.77 percent of contract and subcontract dollars
in construction; awarded 33.41 percent and paid 31.06 percent of contract and subcontract
303 Payments on contracts that were not substantially complete at the time of the Study data collection were
excluded from the paid dollar totals.
304 Only one contract in the Commodities category had federal-assistance.
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