by Julia Paulus

If you’re a minority or female business owner, becoming disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE)-certified means gaining access to opportunities to participate in highway construction projects. In the past, each minority- and women-owned business that desired to be certified as a DBE would have to complete a DBE certification with each agency to participate on the agency’s federal-aid projects.

But since the Unified Certification Program (UCP) was started in 2005, the inconvenience of becoming a DBE has disappeared. The UCP functions as a “one-stop-shop” disadvantaged business enterprise certification process required by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) for agencies in each state that receive federal USDOT funds for construction projects. 

Therefore, if a minority- or woman-owned business is DBE-certified with any of these agencies, they are certified with all of them. The agencies that participate in the process for the state of Missouri include the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), Lambert airport authority, Metro, the city of Kansas City, East-West Gateway, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC).

Any company who believes that they are eligible for certification per 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 26 will be eligible to participate in the UCP. The following are the minimum requirements for DBE certification:

• A socially and economically disadvantaged individual(s) who also controls the firm and has a personal net worth of less than $750,000 must have at least 51% ownership in the firm.

• The disadvantaged owner must be a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted permanent resident of the United States.

• The firm must meet the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) size standard and not exceed $22.41 million in gross annual receipts.

• The firm must be a for-profit business.

To get started, business owners should contact the DBE office in any of the agencies listed above or can visit http://www.modot.mo.gov/ecr/Contact.htm for more information. Then business owners simply need to submit an application package with supporting documentation. Once the agency is certified, their name goes in a statewide directory providing more exposure for business opportunities.

The information in this article was provided by Lester Woods Jr., the external civil rights director for the Missouri Department of Transportation, and Jeff Lea, the public relations manager at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.