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Document
ACCRED - Award - NIGP Innovation Award 2009
Year Created: 2009
DOCUMENT
Establishing an Effective Supplier Diversity Program
- YEAR CREATED: 2022
- ENTITY TYPE: National
- TYPE OF DOCUMENT: BPR - Best Practice
- Management
- Policies and Procedures
The document provides guidance on establishing an effective supplier diversity program. It emphasizes the importance of complying with policy and legal requirements to prevent discrimination against women-owned or minority-owned businesses. The document suggests gathering data from various sources, such as supplier registration data from other government agencies, to assess spending on goods and services sold by small and diverse businesses. It also recommends reviewing reports from subcontractors to identify contracting opportunities and maintain historical records of supplier diversity efforts.
The document highlights the need to determine whether race/gender neutral practices are in place and to ensure that preference programs, if implemented, are narrowly tailored and meet all legal requirements. It warns of potential risks, such as unintentional discrimination, providing preferences outside the legal framework, and non-compliance with federal funding sources.
The document discusses the permissibility of outreach programs, training, and efforts to increase the competitive pool of underutilized contractors. However, it cautions that explicit preferential treatment based on protected classifications (e.g., race/gender) may have constitutional issues and must satisfy certain standards defined by legislation and judicial opinions. It suggests conducting disparity studies and obtaining expert assistance to evaluate the relevance of data, such as Dun & Bradstreet data and anecdotal evidence of discrimination.
The document advises working closely with legal counsel to satisfy the legal requirements of the supplier diversity program and customize it to meet the needs of constituents. It emphasizes the importance of understanding federal and state funding or statutory requirements and provides cautionary guidance on program components that involve explicit numerical goals, preferences for specific race/gender groups, and policies that pressure compliance with goals.
Lastly, the document highlights that discrimination can result from policies or procurement practices within the entity or from external factors such as banking barriers, pre-qualification barriers, unreasonable bonding requirements, and incumbent bias. It encourages entity leadership to be aware of these factors and take steps to address them.