Some business owners believe state business going to minority-owned companies important issue

ATLANTA — A father and son who are both Atlanta contractors say they’re convinced that the share of state business going to minority-owned companies is going to be an important issue in the November governor’s election.

Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Richard Belcher broke the story that the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, the state’s purchasing agency, doesn’t know the racial breakdown will be for the vast majority of the billions of dollars the state spends with private companies.

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Gov. Brian Kemp gave the issue a boost when he ordered DOAS to investigate state business with companies owned by veterans, women and minorities -- and report the findings right before the election.

The mid-July executive order directs DOAS to recommend ways to make it easier for those companies to do business with the state. Grabbing the public’s attention despite hot issues like abortion and inflation won’t be easy, but a father-son business team argues that Black voters are paying attention.

Yusuf Ali, 67, and his son, 43-year-old Omar Ali, are lifelong business owners. Some of their work is private, like Omar’s renovation of an old church in Atlanta’s Lakewood Heights neighborhood. He says it’s fully leased and has created 70 local jobs.

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Both men have done a lot of work for government agencies -- including in foreign countries -- but the elder Ali contends Georgia has some built-in obstacles that make it difficult for small, minority businesses.

“Don’t require a small company to have the same material quantity as a large company. For example, if it only takes one lawnmower to do this job, why do you require that he have a hundred to get qualified?” Yusuf Ali told Channel 2.

Here’s what we learned in our investigation.

For the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, the state spent $1.2 billion on statewide contracts. DOAS tracks minority and female participation with those statewide contracts. It says 7.7% went to minority firms and 7% to women-owned firms.

State agencies spent a far greater amount -- $4.9 billion, 80% of overall state spending last year -- but the state is currently unable to track how much went to minority and women owned companies.

“We’ve known this for a long time,” Omar Ali told Investigative Reporter Richard Belcher, and he’s not optimistic about what DOAS will find when it analyzes spending by state agencies.

“Overall as minorities, I think you’re going to see 2%, and out of that 2%, I think you’re going to see 0.6% that goes to Black-owned businesses,” he said.

We asked the younger Ali if this issue -- which has gotten little or no media attention -- will be an issue in the November election.

“I do think there’s going to be a large percentage of voters in this particular race that is going to focus on state contracts or the lack of state contracts,” says Omar Ali.

His father agrees it’s an election issue -- but not just that.

“Most of us have been culturally conditioned to focus in certain areas such as education, health, etcetera. But we think that is just a symptom of the problem. The main problem is economic inequity,” said Yusuf Ali.

Both men avoided any discussion of which candidate they’d prefer in the governor’s race.

Omar Ali says he commends Gov. Kemp for ordering the small business study but expects the findings to be “pretty dire.”

Both businessmen are hoping the state will get serious about making a set amount of state contracting available to minority-owned companies. Omar Ali’s target is 10%, but he admits nothing is guaranteed to change.

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