(The Center Square) — Illinois has failed to broaden access to state contract money for businesses owned by racial minorities, women and people with disabilities because many of the businesses aren’t interested, according to staff of the state’s highly-paid Commission on Equity and Inclusion.

But a business owner who helps others obtain the certification that gets them priority for state contracts blames the diversity commission’s processes.

The issue was raised in a recent meeting of the state’s Business Enterprise Council, a subordinate of the commission that, in part, reviews certification appeals. One of the council members, who did not identify himself before speaking, questioned why total certifications for businesses have been persistently low following a computer software switch.

“They’re the ones that are choosing simply not to respond and participate,” the council member questioned, paraphrasing the commission’s staff.

“On a consistent basis,” responded LaTasha Binder, a deputy director for the commission.

The problem has dogged the commission for nearly two years. The commission has tried, most often in vain, to acclimate more than 2,000 formerly certified businesses to the new system.

But Tracy Sullivan, a consultant who assists businesses with the certification process, said the problem is a combination of difficulty and disillusionment. Getting certified has long been cumbersome, and the software issues have complicated that.

“I don’t believe that businesses don’t care about being certified,” Sullivan told The Center Square. “You can only bang your head against the wall so many times before the headache becomes too much.”

Not pointing fingers

The diversity commission staff’s remarks, during a public meeting last month, came after weeks of bipartisan scrutiny by state lawmakers who are displeased with the commission’s lack of progress.

The commission’s executive director, Alexandria Wilson, told The Center Square the comments were not meant to shift blame to businesses: “This is not a matter of fault, it is a matter of process change,” she wrote in an email.

“With the transition to the new Supplier Diversity Management Portal, vendors now have to complete a manual update to create an account and confirm their information,” she said. “That step is essential for data accuracy, but it also means the certification count now reflects only those firms that have actively updated their profiles.”

She and other staff told lawmakers that even though the total number of certified businesses is nearly half of its peak, that smaller group of about 2,900 more actively seeks state contracts.

Lawmakers created the commission in 2022 to push the state closer to its goals of awarding between 20 and 30 percent of eligible state contract money to those businesses. The agency is led by seven commissioners who are each paid about $150,000 annually, and they have a staff of more than 30 people.

The council had overseen the goals before lawmakers formed the commission — a new layer of bureaucracy that supersedes the council.

While the commission recently reported that about $1.6 billion of state contract money went to those businesses last fiscal year — the highest total yet — the money went to fewer of the businesses.

A forthcoming solution

The commission has been flummoxed by a computer software problem that has been ongoing since July 2024 that resulted in a monumental decline in the number of businesses that are certified for preference in state contracting.

Unable to correct it, commissioners and their staff have attempted to contact more than 2,000 businesses that lost their certifications to help them get recertified. In recent months, they have made personal phone calls to the businesses.

Binder said the commission has not been successful with the businesses despite staff “hand-holding every step of the way.”

“So there’s anecdotal information that suggests if firms are not recertifying, those are firms that may not be actively pursuing or participating in the state of Illinois procurement opportunities,” Binder said during last week’s Business Enterprise Council meeting.

The new software was meant to streamline the certification process, but Sullivan said it still contains unnecessary and burdensome steps that can take months for businesses to climb, especially if they have few employees.

Sullivan is retired from a long career in public contracting and now works as a consultant. She said she has helped seven or eight businesses get certified with the state and is certified herself for a woman-owned business. She has offered to help the commission simplify the online process.

“The challenge and the work that it takes to get through that process — the small business owners don’t have the extensive quantity of time it takes to create, attach and submit dozens of documents,” Sullivan said, adding that some of them simply abandon the process midway through.

The commission hopes to implement a workaround for the software problem in the coming months.

Wilson and other commission staff have been grilled by Democrats and Republicans at two legislative budget hearings in recent weeks — largely based on The Center Square’s reporting — and are expected to attend a third, as they seek about $5.6 million to operate their agency in the next fiscal year.