DOVER—A recent review of the State of Delaware’s procurement practices found that the appraisal of state contracts for construction, goods, and services are excluding women and people of color from economic opportunities.

The 2022 Disparity Study, which was conducted by MGT Consulting Group, determined that businesses owned by women received less than 3% of total state contracting dollars from 2015 to 2020 that were reviewed by the study, while firms owned by people of color received less than 7% over the same time period. The study also found disparities between the number of businesses owned by people with disabilities and veterans capable of fulfilling state contracts and the number of businesses receiving contracts.

“In partnership with Governor Carney, in recent years we have put greater emphasis on providing critical early-stage support to small, local businesses, particularly those in communities of color,” said Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, who led the push to require the Disparity Study in the Fiscal Year 2021 Bond Bill.

“While that was a good first step away from historical inequalities and inequities, the disparity study released this week makes it abundantly clear that there is still so much more that can and must be done to achieve equity in economic opportunities in the First State.”

The 2022 Disparity Study analyzed data only from the Office of Management and Budget, Department of Health and Social Services and Department of Correction. These were the agencies chosen to best represent the State’s data, which was available through the State’s opensource checkbook portal.

The 155-page report gives the State of Delaware a variety of recommendations the state can take to improve equity and promote greater gender and racial diversity among its suppliers including the use of specific and overall diversity goals, adopting a narrowly tailored program to promote supplier diversity, using a vendor rotation system for smaller contracts, enhancing record retention and data collection, and expanding outreach and training for federally certified disadvantaged businesses.