New York Gov. David Paterson last week signed four laws designed to boost the participation of minority- and women-owned firms in state agency and authority contracts, including financial services.
The New York State Business Diversity Act creates a cabinet-level position within the governor’s office, the chief diversity officer, to oversee implementation of state diversity programs.
The act requires that public authorities designate one or more senior staff members to oversee their diversity programs and conduct procurements to meet their participation goals.
The act “puts in place a clear emphasis on goals, compliance, and oversight, which would include financial services such as investment banking,” said Paul Williams Jr., executive director of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and the chairman of a task force that studied participation of minority- and women-owned firms in state contracts.
Under the act, agencies and authorities will consider firms’ diversity practices when awarding contracts, Williams said.
In 2008, the task force created guidelines for requests for proposals for underwriters that were subsequently adopted by the issuers of state-backed debt.
The guidelines were intended to lower barriers to entry for minority- and women-owned firms.
The act does not affect those guidelines, which were adopted by individual boards.
The governor’s office reports that the effort has been effective, increasing minority- and women-owned firm participation on state-backed debt to 23.9% from 4.2% in 2007.
The task force also looked at other procurement areas that were not related to debt issuance.
