Minority firms getting few Katrina pacts
Minority-owned businesses say they're paying the price for the decision by Congress and the Bush administration to ignore certain rules for Hurricane Katrina recovery contracts. About 1.5 percent of the $1.6 billion awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency has gone to minority businesses, less than a third of the 5 percent normally required. The govenment said to speed aid, many requirements normally attached to government contracting were set aside by Congress. My question is this the best way to rebuild the economy in New Orleans? Is it fair?
2 comments:
The sad truth of this issue is that the government made the right decision, when allocating money for desaster relief. As our supply and demand curves have shown, when the government intervenes with economic matters, the artificial atmosphere that exists results in an inefficiency. This is the same case in New Orleans. If the government is simply getting the highest quality, for the least amount of money, then who cares what color or ethnicity the workers/owners of that company are. Is it not more important to rebuild than promote equality.
I have never been a fan of the government's policy on handing contracts in emergency situations, offering these "No-bid" types of contracts to the first business that comes along and offers their services. Historically, these contracts don't end up going to minority companies because the companies are not as aggressive in seeking those types of contracts - and, as a result, do not get the emergency contracts. These companies need to be more ambitious, as there is no time to create racial equality in contracting in a situation such as the Katrina disaster. Minority businesses are the only ones who can be accountable for their imbalance in getting government contracts.
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