Two weeks after Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams said Gov. Brian Kemp was not doing enough to boost minority business owners’ access to state contracts, a Georgia agency published a report outlining ways the state can improve how it works with those businesses.
The report that the Department of Administrative Services released Monday — a little over a week before the midterm election — was conducted at Kemp’s direction.
Making sure minority companies have access to state contracts is a national issue Abrams highlighted in a February op-ed she wrote with her business partner, Lara Hodgson, shortly before the pair released their book “Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back.”
In July, Kemp issued an executive order asking the department to study issues that small businesses face in securing state contracts and provide recommendations by Oct. 31, eight days before the election.
Among its recommendations: The state should expand a program that certifies minority businesses, revise the requirements for bidding and contracting certain projects and appoint small business liaisons at each of the 120 state agencies that are under the department’s purchasing authority.
Christine Greene, the department’s deputy commissioner of operations, Christine Greene said the main response from small businesses was that they didn’t know what bids were available to them.
“Having these liaisons to identify right-sized bid opportunities and work with their small business to be able to access those is an exciting opportunity,” Greene said.
Kemp’s executive order also directed the department to, among other things, create the position of “Small Business and Supplier Diversity Manager” and increase outreach efforts to small businesses, “with a particular focus” on minority-owned, woman-owned and veteran-owned businesses. That position was filled by Julian Bailey three days after the executive order, Greene said.
Abrams has said it would take 100 years for minority-owned businesses to “close the gap” with the revenue made by white-owned businesses in Georgia.
Michael Holloman, campaign spokesmen for Abrams, said the report doesn’t tell Georgians where the state currently stands in providing minority-owned businesses access to state contracts.
“After four months of investigating, Kemp still can’t tell us what percentage of state contracts go to minority-owned businesses,” Holloman said. “What is clear is that 90% of businesses surveyed said they identified needs like access to capital and assistance with the bidding process.”
During an Oct. 17 debate, Abrams said Kemp had not acknowledged the gap in access until his July executive order and asked Kemp what his “concrete specific targeted plans” were to ensure minority-owned businesses have the opportunity to apply for government contracts. Kemp didn’t directly answer the question but said all Georgians benefited from his push to keep businesses open and reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
“A lot of Georgians, including African Americans and other minorities, cannot go to work if their kids are not in the classroom,” Kemp said.
Abrams said those policies don’t have anything to do with ensuring minority-owned businesses have access to government contracts.
“Mr. Kemp did not address the needs of purchasing and contracts for Black- and brown-owned businesses, which is what he has refused to do for the last 16 years,” she said.
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