NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell joined other City officials and community leaders this week to announce a restructuring of the procurement process to improve supplier diversity when it comes to awarding and tracking City contracts to local businesses.
The City said the restructuring includes moving the Office of Supplier Diversity under the Finance Department, led by Chief Financial Officer Norman White. This allows Supplier Diversity and Procurement, also under Finance, to have earlier involvement in the procurement process. This will allow all involved to assess the performance of both Primes and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) in prior contracting, which in turn will lead to a more effective process with improved accountability.
“Ensuring that both the Office of Supplier Diversity and the Office of Procurement are under Finance will lead to a more effective and efficient process that will provide more opportunities for our women- and Black-owned businesses who previously have felt left out of the contracting process. We are making City Hall a more equitable place to do business and resolving one of the key issues we learned from our transition report when I came into office,” said Mayor Cantrell.
The City said it will continue to work with Build NOLA, the training program that allows small businesses to learn about all aspects of creating and sustaining a business. The City also plans to partner with the local commerce chambers to increase participation in new training programs. The City said it has also linked its BRASS purchasing system with the Business-to-Government Disadvantaged Business Enterprise tracking program so that compliance officers will know immediately who has been paid and who has not been paid. Further, the City is working with community groups to add enhanced measures for praising Primes and DBEs who work in earnest with the City’s values, and to admonish those who do not.
