The Commonwealth will provide regular updates about recently completed milestones and next steps throughout the course of the disparity study. Please check back periodically for those updates.

Recent Milestones

• Project initiation - The Pennsylvania Department of General Services and the BBC study team initiated the 2018 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Disparity Study in June 2017 with a meeting in Harrisburg. The study team met with representatives from the Department of General Services executive team, the Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities, and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, Inclusion, and Small Business Opportunities to introduce the study and to answer questions. For materials that the study team presented during the project initiation meeting, here .
• Utilization data collection - BBC began working with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in late June 2017 to collect data on contracts that were awarded during the study period and on vendors that participated in those contracts.

Next Steps

• Continue utilization data collection - The BBC study team will continue to work with the Department of General Services to collect data on construction, professional services, goods, and other services contracts that the Commonwealth awarded during the study period.
• Begin utilization data analysis - The study team will begin analyzing utilization data in July 2017. BBC’s analysis will examine the percentage of total construction, professional services, goods, and other services contract dollars that minority-, woman-, disabled-, veteran-, and LGBT-owned businesses received on prime contracts and subcontracts during the study period.
• Availability surveys - BBC will begin conducting availability surveys in Fall 2017. The study team will attempt to contact all businesses in the “relevant geographic market area” that perform work that is relevant to the Commonwealth’s construction, professional services, goods, and other services contracts. The study team will collect information that is relevant to determining each business’s availability for Commonwealth work, such as primary line of work; geographic scope of services; and qualifications and interest in working for the Commonwealth. The surveys will also collect information about business characteristics such as revenue, size, and the disadvantaged business status (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, veteran, disabled, and LGBT) of ownership.