Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) officials reported that more than $1.7 million in contracts were awarded over the last six months in its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.
Contracts in the program are awarded to DBEs by ethnicity and gender. The six ethnicities include Black American, Hispanic American, Native American, Asian Pacific American, Subcontinent Asian American, and non-minority.
A total of $18,284 was awarded to women, but only to Subcontinent Asian American women. More than $1.7 million program dollars were awarded to men, with $960,259 being awarded to Black American men, and $794,451 being awarded to subcontinent Asian American men.
The program’s reporting period was from October 1st, 2022 to March 31st, said Anthony Amos, MATA’s chief compliance officer. MATA creates a proposal goal and submits it the FTA (Federal Transit Administration) every three years, he said.
“This goal is established using financial information for future capital projects that we have proposed to complete during these three years,” said Amos. “We are currently developing a new proposed three-year goal that will be submitted to the FTA by August 1st of this year. It was 17 percent for the previous three-year goal cycle
DBEs are a “vital part of the economic structure of the Mid-South, and assisting those businesses contributes to their overall economic growth and expansion as well as strengthening the economic foundation of our community,” said MATA.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) said DBEs “are for-profit small business concerns where socially and economically disadvantaged individuals own at least a 51 percent interest and also control management and daily business operations.”
To participate in this program, the qualifying business must receive a DBE certification from their state.
Amos compared MATA’s program to the city of Memphis’ Minority, Women-Owned and Small Business Enterprise (MWSBE) program, but said the program have significant differences. For example, the governing body for MATA’s program is the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) while the city’s program is governed by the Office of Business Diversity and Compliance (OBDC.)
“USDOT’s DBE Program seeks to ensure nondiscrimination in the award and administration of USDOT-assisted contracts in the Department’s highway, transit, and airport financial assistance programs and to create a level playing field on which DBEs can compete fairly for USDOT-assisted contracts,” the presentation stated.
With a Black population of 64.4 percent, MATA officials said Memphis ranked fifth in the top 10 cities with the largest African-American population with transit agencies, according to President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Framework. Jackson, Mississippi, ranked first with 82.8 percent of their population identifying as African-American.
The report also showed that 52.6 percent of the population identified as female, and 22.6 percent live in poverty. Among their peers, Memphis and MATA ranked 6th in both categories.