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City says new B2G system will improve MWBE reporting; auditors find inconsistent agency compliance
Summary
An audit follow-up found the mayor's office of Small and Minority Business Advocacy and Development (SMBAD) has implemented a new B2G compliance system but agencies report unevenly. SMBAD said it is completing contract data reviews, expanding training and will publish fuller annual reporting next year.
City Auditor Josh Pash told the Board of Estimates on March 5 that the mayor's office of Small and Minority Business Advocacy and Development has implemented a digital contracting compliance system (B2G) but has not yet produced complete citywide trend data.
Pash summarized the follow-up audit of the office’s prior recommendations and implementation status: one recommendation implemented, three partially implemented and one not implemented. The audit found the B2G platform is live but that SMBAD is still completing the migration and verification of historical contract and payment records. “The system is currently live, and they are still, working out the, the kinks,” Pash said.
The audit also noted inconsistent agency reporting: among nine agencies that submitted FY23 annual reports to SMBAD, four did not include MBE/WBE goal compliance information. That inconsistency, auditors said, makes it difficult to calculate citywide compliance trends.
SMBAD Director Michael Lundy (introduced to the Board as the city’s SMBAD director) described the B2G ecosystem to the Board, including a public portal (baltimorecity.diversitycompliance.com), on-demand training videos, monthly payment feeds from Workday, automated notifications to primes and subs and agency dashboards. Lundy said SMBAD expects to finish its contract compliance reviews “this month” and start electronic goal setting next month; he told the Board the office is optimistic it will be “fully operational” this spring.
Lundy also flagged a practical problem: Workday currently does not carry the contract MWBE goals field, so SMBAD staff must manually verify older contracts and goals during the migration. He said the office is working with the Workday team to add goal fields so future migration will be automated and less manual.
Comptroller Bill Henry and Board members asked when SMBAD would have a complete baseline. Lundy said the FY24 annual report will be more complete and FY25 reporting should include the full set of dashboard-driven metrics. He noted SMBAD has added staff (training officer, data scientist) and is developing standardized templates for agency annual reports to reduce reporting inconsistency.
Why it matters: the B2G system promises more transparent, near-real-time MWBE compliance reporting and departmental dashboards that could be used to target enforcement or technical assistance. Auditors cautioned the system’s value will depend on full data migration and consistent agency participation.
The Board noted the item; SMBAD will continue reviewing contract records and work with procurement and Workday to complete the integration.
