when it comes to government contracts the vast majority of business in New Jersey is going to white male owners that finding comes from a report commissioned by the Murphy Administration where experts analyzed more than $18 billion dollar worth of public contracts doled out over five years the study shows that despite making up a significant pool of eligible businesses women and minority-owned firms are largely being shut out as Raven Santana reports the Murphy Administration is now vowing to fix it black people are being ignored here we're not being heard John Harmon president and CEO of the African-American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey did not hold back when expressing his disappointment in a recently released report on the disparity of public Contracting opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses the study which was conducted by Mason Tilman Associates reviewed Statewide data relating to goods and services professional services and construction over a 5year period every category blacks were on the bottom according to the report minority owned businesses represented 27.97% of the available construction businesses but received only 3.69% of the dollars for the prime construction contracts valued from 65,000 dollars to 5,710,000 dollars.

Like wise minority-owned businesses represented 23.56% of the available goods and services businesses but received only 4.24% of the dollars on Prime goods and services contracts valued from 40,000 to $360,000 you know what you're saying when you make a a proposal and and you come up with nothing and then you go by the job and you see someone else doing what you petition to do you know what happened MTA reviewed more than 1.2 million records and 240,000 contracts from over 60 Contracting agencies authorities commissions state colleges and universities the contracts reviewed were awarded between July 1st 2015 and June 30th 2020 they concluded that disparity in the awarding of public contracts exists across multiple minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises in the sectors of goods Services Professional Services and construction this is my personal opinion I'm not speaking for any of the organizations that I sit with but this is a systemic issue that it's you know it's continuing to happen but bringing a document like this a research document like this out into the light is going to disrupt the system Monica Martinez Milan is owner of stumpy's Hatchet House in Greenbrook a board member of the Statewide Hispanic chamber of commerce of New Jersey and recently was named the new chair of the Somerset County Business Partnership Milan says she was disheartened by the data especially when it comes to women owned businesses the reports show it so to see that discrepancy it hurt it hurt our community and the whole point of having this this study is to put it out into the light so that we could start truly making a change according to the report women-owned businesses represented 37.75 of the available Professional Services businesses but received only 9.91% of the do on Prime Professional Services contracts valued from $40,000 to $800,000 still Milan remains positive that change has been happening and will be accounted for more and more people have become certified since the studies came out so we don't know the numbers yet um what the difference would be as to how you know where we are today the the disparity is too wide to make it up overnight the acts have to be very intentional and they have to be rather large and impactful to make a difference for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana