N.C. Sen. Joel Ford provided for Forum readers the text of a North Carolina Department of Transportation report dated March 31, 2014 that indicated that, for the 2013 fiscal year, 2.76% of DOT contracts and other spending had been awareded to minority-owned firms, well short of the DOT goal of 6.7%. The department placed 6.17% with women business enterprises, closer to its 7.1% goal.

Ford made the following comment at the Forum. The four pages of the report are below or can be downloaded here.