Continues Leadership Role in Creating Opportunity

Albany - - In a significant policy development, the Board of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) at its January 27th Board meeting adopted a resolution committing the Authority to a set of best practices designed to increase its procurement of professional financial services from certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) firms.

The services covered by the newly adopted resolution include accounting, banking, broker-dealers, financial advisors, risk management, and insurance brokerage, among others.

"The Dormitory Authority continues to be a leader  in creating a level playing field where all qualified firms -- large and small, upstate and downstate, minority-owned and majority-owned -- can compete on equal footing for the opportunity to do business with us," said DASNY Executive Director Paul T. Williams, Jr., "We seek talent and creativity, the highest levels of competence and service, and value for the taxpayers of New York State.  The best way to achieve those goals is to establish opportunities and conditions for all qualified firms to compete for our business."

This action follows a series of similar resolutions, beginning in December 2008, in which the Board adopted sets of best practices for the procurement of MWBE underwriting and legal services.

These measures stem directly from the work of Gov. David A. Paterson's Executive Order 10 MWBE Task Force which was established in June 2008 to increase the utilization of MWBE firms in the issuance of public debt by State authorities.  DASNY Executive Director Paul T. Williams, Jr. serves as Chairman of the Executive Order 10 Task Force.

To date, the best practices initiative has achieved significant positive results.  In the underwriting sector, for example, MWBE firms took in 4.3 percent of all designations by the debt-issuing state authorities in 2007.  In 2008, when authorities began adopting MWBE best practices, that figure increased to 23.3 percent.

The Dormitory Authority, founded in 1944, is the largest higher education, health care and public-purpose issuer of public debt in the nation with an outstanding bond portfolio of more than $38 billion. The Dormitory Authority also is a major public builder in New York State with a construction pipeline of 734 projects valued at $6.7 billion.