What if proposers fail to meet the established goal?
A21: Should the proposers fail to meet the established DBE contract goal, the proposer must document good faith efforts. As detailed in the federal regulations (49 CFR Part 26.53), any bidder who responds to a federally funded solicitation that has an establishedDBE goal attached to it and wishes to be considered responsive to that solicitation is required to either meet the contract goal or demonstrate that it has made good faith efforts to meet that goal. The MBTA′s Government Compliance Unit and the procuring department must collaborate to determine whether a bidder who has not met the contract goal has sufficiently made and documented good faith efforts. To reach this determination, the Unit and the procuring department evaluate whether or not the bidder has taken all necessary and reasonable steps to achieve the DBE goal, and assess the marketplace to see if there are any ready, willing and available DBEs that could provide quality services on this contract that the bidder did not
