The Fast And The Furious

New York is known for supporting minority- and women-owned businesses and helping to fight the constant battle for equal opportunities. Over 20 percent of state construction contracts were awarded to MWBEs in the 2012– 13 fiscal year, and New York City’s Local Law 1-2013 was passed last year to expand MWBEs’ access to city contracts to help create a level playing field. Yet laws and regulations can only help to the extent that corporations comply. Most companies follow the law. When others do not, however, the fast and the furious phenomenon occurs: Large companies play fast and loose with the rules, leaving the entire construction industry feeling furious. 

The most recent example of this phenomenon is DCM Erectors, the Canadian steel company that was awarded approximately $1 billion in contracts to build One World Trade Center and a nearby PATH station. The company received contracts through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with the stipulation that at least 17 percent of the work be subcontracted to MWBEs. Last month the U.S. Attorney’s office charged the owner, Larry Davis, with paying two companies to fake their roles in the projects, allegedly so that DCM Erectors could bypass the Port Authority’s Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise Program. 

This kind of alleged abuse gives the entire industry a bad name. As the president and CEO of a woman-owned firm and an MWBE advocate with more than 25 years of experience in construction, I have worked with so many forthright companies who follow the rules with integrity. However, when one company disregards the rules, it casts doubts on the reliability of large and small companies alike. This kind of defiance makes large companies appear unwilling to support small MWBEs, and makes it seem as though small companies frequently lie about their MWBE certification status. In the process, the actions of a corrupt few can cast the entire industry in a negative light. And when the industry looks bad, we all look bad. 

The building industry has a responsibility to come together as a community of large and small businesses to ensure that this type of fraud is eliminated. Small minority-and women-owned businesses, together with large businesses, must unite with city and state administrations, including the New York City Department of Investigation and the New York District Attorney’s Office, so that all companies are fully aware of the consequences of playing “fast and loose” with the MWBE regulations. 

Additionally, if the current laws need to be revised in order that future abuses of this type are prevented, the New York building community should be tapped as a resource to help guide those necessary changes. Otherwise the success that New York’s MWBEs have fostered— elevating New York to become one of the nation’s most progressive regions in terms of its MWBE goals—may be in peril. Rather than becoming mired in further instances of harmful fraud, let us join together as an industry in continuing to raise the bar for integrity in the great city and state of New York. 

Sandra Wilkin is the president of the Bradford Construction Corp. and the chair emeritus of the Women Builders Council.