A New England minority business advocacy group is using Hartford billboards to blast the Connecticut Lottery Corp. for allegedly failing to tap minority-owned businesses in its procurement processes.
The Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council — with offices in Hamden and Boston — said Wednesday a substantial portion of the lottery’s nearly $1 billion in annual revenues comes from selling tickets to the minority community.
However, the group claims the lottery does not use a proportionate amount of minority-owned businesses when hiring contractors, particularly for its marketing and advertising.
The lottery issued a response Thursday, saying the quasi-public agency supports minority-owned businesses and pointed out that it regularly exceeds state requirements for using minority businesses.
The group claims that under Connecticut law, quasi-public agencies such as the lottery must award 25 percent of their contracts to small businesses, including 6.25 percent to minority-owned businesses – goals the lottery regularly exceeds.
However, the state law stipulates that businesses owned by women (minority or otherwise) count as minority-owned businesses, and the minority supplier development council claims that more than 90 percent of the lottery’s contracts to minority businesses went to those owned by white women.
The Connecticut Commission on Human Rights, which tracks quasi-public agency minority spending, was not immediately available Wednesday morning to confirm those numbers.
