Review finds no discrimination in MoDOT program

A federal review of Missouri Department of Transportation programs for women- and minority-owned businesses found "no evidence of discrimination," but it made several recommendations for improving outreach to and use of those firms for state highway work.

The report from the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, released Tuesday by MoDOT, was prompted by a complaint from the Missouri NAACP. The civil rights group said too little of the $354 million in federal stimulus funds spent by the department had been awarded to minority-owned firms under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, or DBE, program. The program sets goals for using businesses owned by women or minorities on federally funded projects.

Last month, Cape Girardeau was forced to rebid the project to build Fountain Street from Morgan Oak to William streets when the original contract to Nip Kelley Equipment Co. failed to meet the program's goals. MoDOT had set a goal that 6 percent of the contract go to minority- or women-owned firms. Kelley's $1 million bid included only 1.2 percent for those companies.

The DBE program pushes contractors to hire women- or minority-owned firms for subcontracts or to supply materials for contracts.

Lester Woods Jr., director of MoDOT's Office of External Civil Rights, said the report shows the department is meeting the challenges of overcoming past discrimination. And, he said, it confirms that the steps the department is taking to improve its programs are the correct ones.

Mary Ratliff, president of the Missouri State Conference NAACP, said she had not seen the report and declined to comment on MoDOT's news release about it.

The report found that there appears to be a disparity between the use of minority-owned firms when compared to the use of companies owned by white women. It commended MoDOT for launching an in-depth study of that disparity and the availability of companies capable of being certified for the DBE program.

In another section of the report, it notes that MoDOT takes an average of 122 days to certify a business when it applies to be included in the DBE program. Federal rules set a goal of having those application reviews complete within 90 days.

Moving the paperwork faster can be difficult without additional employees, but Woods said his office will review how applications are processed to speed up reviews without adding workers.

The report praised MoDOT for hiring a provider capable working with women- and minority-owned firms to develop their ability to compete for contracts. The report lists six areas of service that MoDOT could provide to strengthen that training.

"MoDOT is committed to acting on these recommendations and do everything it can to continue to improve MoDOT's DBE program," Woods said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Missouri Department of Transportation, Jefferson City, MO