Cambridge’s disparity report, released in December, is the most recent example of how Massachusetts municipalities and the commonwealth as a whole are struggling with increasing procurement from minority business enterprises. Over the five years ending in July 2021, Cambridge awarded only about 0.5% of its funds for city contracts to businesses owned by people of color.

Similarly, a 2020 disparity study for Boston revealed that out of $2.1 billion in city contracts for construction and professional goods and services, only 1.2% went to Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses.

At the state level, a similar study covering fiscal year 2022 revealed that Massachusetts state agencies awarded some $217 million in contracts to minority-owned companies, over $50 million more than the prior year. The report also said that minority-owned businesses earned an additional $133 million for subcontracting and other services to white-owned businesses with state contracts. In all, minority-owned firms garnered about $350 million that year, amounting to 5.4% of state contract dollars.

Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Maura Healey campaigned on improving those numbers, and they have. In November, the mayor’s office released a report, Equity in City Contracts, documenting those improvements. For example, Boston awarded a total of $1.08 billion in contracts that began in fiscal year 2023. Of that, $151 million — 14% — went to certified minority-owned and women-owned businesses, which represented a 133% increase compared to fiscal year 2020.

But these reports don’t tell us what progress has been made in the private sector since the killing of George Floyd in 2020, when many companies vowed to do better. We may be disappointed in Boston’s low numbers, but the city’s entire budget is only around $4 billion, compared to $16 billion for Mass General Brigham. In 2021, Boston’s gross city product was $155 billion. What are other organizations in the city doing to increase procurement from minority-owned businesses? We simply don’t have visibility into those numbers.

In the spirit of “what gets measured gets managed,” many have called for more transparency and accountability from large organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit. That’s why Ron Marlow, vice president of Workforce Development and Alternative Education of ABCD, and I drafted the Transparency and Accountability in Procurement Act, now known as HD.4759. Rep. Chris Worrell recently filed the bill in the state Legislature with the goal of increasing visibility into the procurement numbers of the state’s largest institutions — those with revenues of $100 million or more. The bill calls for organizations to disclose their procurement spending with minority- and women-owned businesses.

Research by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City on anchor institutions — hospitals, universities, arts and cultural institutions — shows that when it comes to economic revitalization, such institutions can play a transformative role in a city. Procurement and related capacity-building are just two of the ways.

If we work collectively to change procurement practices, build capacity, and pilot emerging technologies from minority-owned companies, we will have taken the first step to narrowing the racial wealth gap.

We need to look beyond spending for goods and services and examine capital projects. State agencies and nonprofits collectively spend billions each year on construction projects, and this is another area where we must do more to help minority business enterprises. Contrary to popular belief, developers don’t have to hire for union jobs based on seniority. Hiring out of order can put more Black workers on jobs, especially on government projects, which will increase minority participation.

As interested stakeholders, cities and the commonwealth have a great deal of leverage with unions, developers and major general contractors. Mayors and the governor can hold back permits and permissions until developers provide acceptable plans that have union buy-in and higher minority participation.

Supplier diversity is important to the Commonwealth and cities such as Boston. There needs to be public reporting from the large institutions across the state that have the public’s trust.

The public, private, and nonprofit sectors must work together to improve minority procurement numbers to help reduce the racial wealth gap.

Ed Gaskin is Executive Director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.