In 2012, the New Pittsburgh Courier reported that millions of dollars in minority subcontracts the Pittsburgh Equal Opportunity Review Commission reported as issued by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority-hired contractors were, in fact, illusory. They existed only on paper.
Now, thanks to a rash of changes the authority has authorized during the last two years—including restructuring its internal policies to ensure more minorities and women are hired and promoted, and also hiring Diamonte Walker to head its new Minority- Women- and Disabled-Business Enterprise Program Office—no such “wish list” reports will be generated again.
At the URA board’s July 12 meeting, it officially signed off on new MWDBE Notification Policy, MWDBE Planning Policy, MWDBE Utilization by Department Policy, and Good Faith Effort Waiver Policy. All were created under Walker’s direction with the aim, as authority Executive Director Robert Rubinstein said, to “ensure there is equity in contracting opportunities with the URA.”
But it also approved the purchase of a new software system that, once fully operational, will monitor every contract for MWDBE compliance and which will alert all parties when any targets are met, or missed.
“Companies shouldn’t be told they are part of a job, and then find out later they are not. This is about moving further into the realm of accountability,” said Walker. “We’ll have an integrated tracking system from the planning stage through the result that will cover diverse contracting, workforce utilization, and prevailing wage compliance—and I’ll be able do it in real time.”
The cloud-based system was developed by Arizona-based B2GNow and will cost the authority a maximum $30,000 implementation fee and annual maintenance fees of up to $45,000.
The system will also eliminate the authority’s current reliance on mail and word documents to verify MWDBE contract compliance, which, according to Rubinstein’s report to the board, is currently less than 50 percent.
“Use of this module should increase the response rate and eliminate compliance reporting delays/errors caused by manual calculations. It better enables on demand reporting and real time contract monitoring to address poor MWDBE participation,” the report said.
Because the system is so integrated, Walker said, it will ensure subcontractors get paid in a more timely fashion. “Minority contractors will see when the general contractor gets paid,” she said. “The system also addresses the ‘digital gap’ some of our subs face in terms of their technology because it can be accessed from a mobile phone. These guys might not have a MacBook but they all have cellphones.”
The system will also allow for real-time tracking of minority workforce participation. “I think we’re looking at a new era,” said Walker.
“I can’t say it will happen next week because we are still in the ‘proof of concept’ stage. But we’ll have all the modules installed and begin testing by November. We’ll need to add some security protocols. We’ll have a few projects run through it by the end of the first quarter of 2019. So, no worse than April, it should be up and running.”
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