Native American Like Me
In the Elizabeth Warren spirit, contractors claiming to be Cherokee but who actually had white ancestry, walked away with $300 million. And maybe-probably much more.
This money was awarded by state and federal authorities through minority contracting programs -- given to business owners who made unsubstantiated claims of being Native American.
Adam Elmahrek and Paul Pringlewrite in the LA Times:
The minority-owned certifications and contract work were issued in every West Coast state, New Mexico and Idaho, Texas and four Southern states, several states in the Midwest and as far east as Pennsylvania, The Times found.In applying for the minority programs, 12 of the 14 business owners involved claimed membership in one of three self-described Cherokee groups, according to government records and interviews.
Those three groups have no government recognition and are considered illegitimate by recognized tribes and Native American experts, however.
The three groups are the Northern Cherokee Nation, based in Clinton, Mo.; the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri, based in Mansfield, Mo.; and the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory, based in Columbia, Mo.
..The total awarded to questionable Native American contractors is almost certainly significantly higher than $300 million.
But the Small Business Administration, or SBA, which issues minority certifications for federal contracts, discards records six years after companies graduate out of its program. Some state and local agencies also frequently destroy records or refuse to release them.
Others, such as the Kansas Department of Transportation, don't require proof of tribal enrollment, only a signed affidavit swearing that one is Native American.
It's like the business funding version of declaring your parakeet is a service animal and dressing it in a tiny vest.
Oh, and how many people got into college by claiming themselves to be a member of a minority group?
And how many "minority contracts" in business get awarded to people who don't come close to fitting the bill?
And finally...should we be awarding minority contracts?
Hah. Now do women and blacks. You'll find much the same thing.
Ben at June 27, 2019 6:08 AM
I used to manage these contracts. The SBA itself is a total scam. Even when it is a legitimate set aside, the minority contractors themselves aren’t doing the work, they are subcontracting most of it out to the same people who would have performed the work on any contract without the 20 percent markup that the minority scammers rip off the taxpayers for.
Isab at June 27, 2019 6:28 AM
If you want to get a foot in the door in the defense business, this is pretty much how you have to do it. Large defense contracts all contain "minority set-asides", in which the prime contract must award a certain percentage of the contract to woman-owned and minority-owned subcontractors. The way the game is often played is that a white guy who wants to start a company will set up the incorporation such that his wife is the majority shareholder and, at least nominally, the CEO. Now, sometimes the wife is in fact doing the duties of the CEO. But sometimes she's a figurehead: she puts on a business suit occasionally to meet with the contract officer and do public appearances, but the husband is the one actually running the company and making the decisions.
This doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of work done by the company; there are good ones and bad ones, just like anywhere else. But the fact is, without that woman/minority as the public face of the company, the white guy isn't getting past the first gatekeeper. Everyone here knows how the system works, and gaming it is so common that it seldom receives any attention.
Cousin Dave at June 27, 2019 6:55 AM
yep, I've seen estimates that ~40-50% of 'minority owned' contractors are either proxies for other companies or minority-owned in title alone.
The practice is so common that people don't bother to conceal it any longer. In fact there is a network of women in NOVA that hold seminars explaining how to do this. They brag about 'owning' multiple contracting firms, with a few having literally 20 to 30 different companies that they front for.
pita at June 27, 2019 7:19 AM
Saw this firsthand at the company I used to work for. There was an electrical distributor that got contracts by being owned by a female. Problem was, she was just a figurehead. The company was actually run by her husband. It was just a way to get a leg up on the competition.
Jim Armstrong at June 27, 2019 7:29 AM
In my locality, many contractors have formed LLCs and placed their wife in the position of CEO so they can be considered a woman-owned business for the purpose of pursuing government contracts.
I R A Darth Aggie at June 27, 2019 8:17 AM
There should not be any set-asides for women or minorities or anyone. Maybe 40 yrs ago it was needed. Now it is just cronyism and promotes fraud as those above have noted.
cc at June 27, 2019 1:16 PM
That last question is the most important:
"should we be awarding minority contracts?"
The answer should be a resounding NO!
If race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or any other so-called protected class status cannot be used to not hire then those same categories should not be used to hire or promote or give a government contract to.
charles at June 27, 2019 5:28 PM
"Oh, and how many people got into college by claiming themselves to be a member of a minority group?"
Does this include claiming to be from Kenya? I know of one guy that did that...
Lying is a staple of candidacy.
Radwaste at July 1, 2019 10:34 AM
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