Black-Owned Contractors Pretty Much Excluded From the $3.1 Billion Construction Program of the University of North Carolina System

Kenneth Johnson, the director of the Carolinas Associated Minority Contractors, alleges that many of the schools in the University of North Carolina system do not act in good faith in regard to hiring opportunities for minority contractors. Johnson gave the system’s board of governors a list of 21 complaints concerning delinquent payments, unfair hiring practices, and requests for kickbacks from minority firms in return for contract awards.

The university is currently spending $3.1 billion under a voter-approved bond issue for construction on the system’s campuses. About 11 percent of the money spent so far has gone to minority firms. But black-owned firms have received only 1.8 percent of the business.

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