The U.S. Department of Transportation has called for a review of all Native American companies in its minority contracting program in response to a Times investigation.
that found that companies received more than $300 million in government contracts based on unsubstantiated claims by the firms’ owners to be Native American.
All of the businesses won certification as minority contractors even though birth, census and other government records reviewed by The Times identified the firms’ owners or their ancestors as white. The contracts were doled out in at least 18 states. Each year, billions of dollars in contracts for women and minority-owned firms are issued nationwide through the Transportation Department’s program, which is separate from the SBA and administered by state and local agencies across the country.to those agencies asking them to review all companies classified as Native American-owned, according to a copy obtained by The Times.
The SBA and other agencies granted minority certifications despite the groups’ lack of federal recognition as legitimate Native American tribes. The Times found that the certification process was often spotty, with officials accepting flimsy documentation of Native American heritage or unverified accounts that the contractors suffered discrimination because of their ethnicity.
The combined value of government work awarded to contractors with questionable Native American ancestry is almost certainly much greater than $300 million.
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