Westchester County encourages MWBEs to get certified

NY News - Published Oct 16, 2023

Westchester County has recently released its Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) Annual Expenditure and Utilization Report, showing that the County has made great strides in utilizing MWBEs in its procurement, but that there is still room for growth.

The County spent $365 million in contracts that were eligible for MWBE utilization during 2022, and MWBEs received $95 million in contract dollars, or 26 percent of that total, comfortably surpassing the MWBE utilization goal for that year of 20 percent. The utilization figure is also a marked improvement over previous years, in which the figure never rose above 11.6 percent from 2019 through 2021.

MWBEs can find out more about getting certified in Westchester County at https://westchestercatalyst.com/programs-incentives/minority-and-women-owned-business-program. The benefits of certification include being listed in a directory and receiving notifications about workshops and contract opportunities.

"I'm proud to see that as a County we reached the 20% participation goal, but we need more MWBEs registered in the system and aware that these contracts are available," said Westchester County Executive George Latimer in a statement.

Read the press release from the County at https://www.westchestergov.com/home/all-press-releases/9956-westchester-county-executive-george-latimer-encourages-businesses-owned-by-women-and-minorities-to-register-as-mwbes