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Independent review finds procurement progress but gaps in supplier diversity; council OKs emergency presentation
Summary
An independent report commissioned by the council found improvements in purchasing timelines but identified administrative bottlenecks and weak supplier‑diversity outcomes; the council received the report and discussed a $1 million federal grant to expand diversity and procurement capacity.
An independent review of the City‑Parish purchasing process found measurable improvements over the past three years but persistent administrative friction and low participation by certified minority vendors, Metropolitan Council members heard Wednesday.
John Kim, founder of the District Management Group and lead author of the review, told the council the average processing time for many purchase orders and contracts has fallen, but that a high percentage of requisitions are still “held” or rejected for administrative or documentation reasons. "The process is there, but the way it gets executed — the communication, the documentation and the workflows — is where a lot of the delays happen," Kim said.
Kim’s team presented quantitative findings: contract processing time dropped substantially in 2021–2023 for many classes of procurement, but roughly 40% of contracts and 13% of purchase orders were marked as held or rejected at some point in the workflow during the studied period. The review examined root…
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