As the federal government struggles with sequestration and governments at all levels also face the need to economize isn’t it time to start awarding government contracts to the lowest bidder, rather than on the basis of skin color, national origin and sex?
Every bit of savings helps, after all. Or, as the late Sen. Everett Dirksen put it, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
Besides, there’s more at stake than money. It’s just unfair and divisive to discriminate by using race, ethnicity and sex to decide who gets awarded contracts.
Contracting programs should be open to all, bidding opportunities should be widely publicized beforehand, and no one should be discriminated against because of skin color, national origin or sex. That means no preferences whether labeled as “set-asides,” “quotas,” or “goals,” since they all end up amounting to the same thing.
Race- and sex-based contracting can breed abuse, or its appearance. This was underscored by the recent analysis by The Washington Times of contracts under President Obama’s $785 billion stimulus program that were reserved for minority-owned firms. According to the Times, 17 percent of these firms merely acted as “middlemen” and subcontracted the work to others.
Most fundamentally, contracting discrimination violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.
Read more: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/9/causing-discrimination-rather-than-ending-it/#ixzz2PyMYYGpu
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