Minority Enterprise Program Leaders Respond To Audit

Kansas City, MO – About three weeks ago, an audit of Kansas City's program to ensure that minority and women-owned business get a share of city contracts said it took too long to certify the businesses that applied. Yesterday, the city human relations department gave its response.

Human Relations Director Phillip Yelder told the committee that the problem wasn't a slow process or lost applications - it was in the applications that were filed.

"When some of these applications were initially filed, they did not turn in all the information, so now we're asking for that additional documentation from the company. Sometimes these applications can be very, very thick," he told the committee.

Yelder says the information required includes several years' tax returns.

In response to the complaints, his department is now offering more, better publicized training on how to apply, and letters and phone calls to companies that filed an application for MBE or WBE status, but didn't include all the documentation.