The MTA has announced the latest of contracts awarded to up to 29 New York City certified women and minority-owned businesses (MWBE) to complete infrastructure and other work for mass transit commuters.
Although the MTA is broke, as some agency leaders have put it, MTA Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Michael Garner said on Sunday that they are the top organization out of 97 at the state level for giving work to MWBEs.
“As we invest in our region’s infrastructure we must also invest in these often-excluded diverse entrepreneurs. Access to government contracts ensures job creation, home ownership, better educational opportunities, improved health care options and other economic development benefits within these communities,” Garner said. “New York State legislators have supported our diversity efforts and we are now demonstrating vastly improved diversity results.”
In 2018 and 2019, the MTA says it paid MWBEs $736 million which amounts to about 30 of all state contracts. Eleven of the recent awards were for companies in New York City and IT is one of the primary industries the MTA Chief Procurement Officer Kuvershen Ayer says the agency is looking at for work from.
This recent round of contracts represents about $118 million in investment from the MTA which include QED National and Capstone Strategies.
