Racial equity audit highlights process gaps
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A new report on Minnesota’s equal opportunity laws is recommending a bigger budget for the state Department of Human Rights and improvements in the way the state hires employees and awards contracts to minority-owned businesses.
Governor Mark Dayton called for the independent equity audit last spring as part of efforts to address the state’s troubling racial economic disparities. A working group that Dayton formed to oversee the audit released the results Monday during a state Capitol news conference.
W.C. Jordan, NAACP president for Minnesota and the Dakotas, said the first-of-its-kind audit identified gaps in how the state applies its procurement, human rights and affirmative action laws.
“We believe if the state implements the recommendations of the audit firm, we can begin to silence the cry of equity and racial justice, and move forward toward eradicating disparities and closing process gaps,” Jordan said.
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Despite efforts to diversify the businesses receiving state contracts, the audit found that most of the benefit was going to women-owned businesses. It said the numbers remain low or negligible for African Americans, Hispanics, Indigenous Americans and persons with physical disabilities.
The audit stressed that increased funding is needed for the Department of Human Rights to keep pace with the state's changing population and to monitor contractor compliance.
The audit also recommends better oversight of affirmative action hiring and an expansion of the state’s recruitment efforts.
To illustrate the need, Michael Fondungallah, a lawyer and audit author, said he found six questionable cases of State Patrol hires.
“Protected group people did apply in those six instances,” Fondungallah said. “But then the justification for not hiring a protected group person was that no protected group person applied, when they did apply.”
Gov. Dayton said in a statement that he looks forward to reviewing the audit with members of the working group.
“When we began this audit, we knew there were areas where state government needed to improve, to ensure that our state workforce fully reflects the rich diversity of Minnesota," Dayton wrote.