Is Baton Rouge government biased in how it awards contracts? It’s a question Mayor Sharon Weston Broome wants answered.
Which is why her administration is moving forward with a study to determine if there are racial, gender and ethnic disparities in the city-parish contracting process. Broome today issued a request for proposals, seeking a consultant to provide technical and administrative support for the study. The Metro Council signed off on the plan in February, approving up to $300,000 be spent.
The consultant will design and conduct a study to identify what small minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses in East Baton Rouge Parish qualify for government contract work, while also determining what, if any, bias exists in city-parish departmental procurement practices.
Broome signed an executive order last November for the study, saying she aimed to “change the culture” of city-parish contracting to give small and disadvantaged businesses a better shot at landing government contracts.
The study is meant to be the first in a series of steps to extend government contracts to a larger group of businesses.
In 2016, 27% of the bid requests on city-parish work received zero or one bid, Broome’s office says. A Daily Report analysis conducted last year found that 10 companies landed contracts amounting to nearly 60% of the money spent on goods and services by the city-parish in 2016.
Many of those contracts were larger-scale projects like a sewer overhaul system and debris removal from the August 2016 flood.
