OIG Finds City Failed to Monitor Minority-Owned Business Participation Requirements in Parking Meter Deal

September 10, 2024

FOR RELEASE:
September 10, 2024

PRESS CONTACT:
Deanna Shoss, Communications, 773-478-8417

The City of ChicagoOffice of Inspector General(OIG) has released an advisory report identifying failures in the City's monitoring of concessionaire agreements for compliance with minority- and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBE) participation requirements, specifically highlighting undetected non-compliance with those requirements in the 2008 agreement between the City and Chicago Parking Meters, LLC (CPM) for lease of the City's parking meters.

In 1990, the City enacted requirements for M/WBE participation in City contracts to address discriminatory barriers to access to government contracts. Accordingly, the 2008 concessionaire agreement between the City and CPM contained M/WBE participation goals, requiring that CPM utilize M/WBE-certified vendors for a certain percentage of the annual operating expenses of the parking meter system. However, OIG found that the City's efforts to monitor M/WBE compliance in the CPM Agreement had failed to ensure compliance with those participation requirements.

"The parking meter lease was a bad deal for Chicago and Chicagoans. The harm of that bad deal is amplified where the City has not even realized the equity benefits of M/WBE participation," said Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General for the City of Chicago. "We recommended that the Mayor's Office implement monitoring processes to prevent this problem from recurring with this contract or others, and sincerely appreciate the Mayor's Office's commitment to doing so."

Read the Report

Read the full report, released on September 10, 2024.

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