Fed buys 1.7 percent from minority firms
of the Federal Reserve System (the Board). The data shows the total dollar amount the Federal Reserve Board of Governors spent on goods and services from women and minority firms in 2010.
We received the data following our submission of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request to the Board. The FOIA, filed on April 21, 2011, requested the following
information:
1. Dollar amount of Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System WMBE business
contracts in the most recent calendar or fiscal year.
2. Number of WMBE firms the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has done
business with.
The Board spent $9,093,193.92 and conducted business with 38 minority and women owned business firms in 2010. This represents 8.04% of the total dollar amount spent,
$113,109,690.26, by the Board in 2010. Minority firms received $1,958,714.59, or 1.73%.
Women owned firms received $7,134,479.33 of the total, or 6.31%.
For comparison purposes, we note that Essex County New Jersey, for the period
November 11, 2010 through March 23, 2011, “awarded $20,561,276.16 in contract dollars to small, women, and minority vendors out of a total of $61,274,189.69 in private contracts
overall. This number represents 33.5% of the total spend.”
On another front, on June 8th, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released workforce data (EEO-1 data) it provides annually to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to provide a general snapshot of employee composition.
As the Bank noted,
“Although the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) annual report to Congress
is not due until 2012, each Reserve bank is voluntarily making publicly available the
workforce data (EEO-1 data) it provides annually to the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) to provide a general 1260614706 snapshot of employee composition. The race
and gender categories, as well as job categories, are created by the EEOC to measure
employee populations throughout the nation.”
While the data only covers a single pay period in 2010, we feel the release of this data is a
positive step.
