Chamber seeks access to government contracts
By Bill Donovan
Special to the Times
WINDOW ROCK, Nov. 28, 2011
Cal Nez, chamber president, and five members of the steering committee met with Shelly in his office for more than an hour and offered their suggestions on how to make it easier for Navajos to open up their own businesses on tribal land and secure government business.
The chamber officials pointed out to Shelly that the current system doesn't work, either for Navajo business owners or the tribe.
One of the big problems, said Nez, is that the tribe's policy of Navajo preference isn't being followed by Navajo Nation government departments. Part of the reason is that employees are not trained on how to implement procurement laws, he added.
Jessica Stago, a steering committee member, said that in the current system, some Navajo managers would rather work with someone they have dealt with over the years rather than take on a new vendor who is Navajo, despite what the law says.
She pointed to a recent situation where the tribe purchased a computer system from a longtime non-Navajo vendor for $26 million despite a warning from a competing Navajo vendor that the system was bigger than the tribe needed or would ever use.
The Navajo company submitted a $9 million proposal that met the tribe's needs and more, yet the long-time vendor got the contract.
Another chamber complaint was that the tribe often does not inform Navajo business owners when a contract is available. Instead, the information is provided only to long-time contractors who, in many cases, are non-Navajo.
The chamber proposes setting up a Web-based clearinghouse where all of the information about upcoming contracts can be posted so everyone has an equal chance to bid on them.
As it is now, said Geneva Peter, another steering committee member, Navajo business owners often don't hear about a contract until it's too late to act.
The proposed Web site should include step-by-step instructions to bid on each contract, he said.
Pete Nez, another steering committee member, said the chamber is developing a Web site to help members better navigate the tribal government's red tape, and added that he hopes it will provide another incentive for business owners to join the Chamber.
Nez also took the opportunity to stress to Shelly the need to keep the chamber in the loop when proposing changes to laws that will affect businesses.
"We want to be at the table," he said.
Shelly stressed to the chamber members that he understood, saying that before he went into politics, he had a business that depended heavily on the tribe's business to survive.
He was doing well under then Chairman Peterson Zah but in 1986, Peter MacDonald Sr. defeated Zah and all of a sudden, Shelly said, his contracts dried up. Eventually he had to declare bankruptcy.
"I know what you are going through," he said, adding that he's working on ways for Navajo-owned businesses to go around the red tape and operate more effectively.
At the end of the meeting, Shelly directed Albert Damon, director of the Division of Economic Development, to work with the chamber on proposals that he wants to put before Congress next week on streamlining business regulations on the reservation.