It is important that governmental entities know the track records of companies they contract with and ensure that only law-abiding companies receive public dollars. Such information allows government to make smart decisions about public money and public services. 

Fortunately, government entities have a powerful tool to make sure they aren’t working with irresponsible companies: debarment. While policies vary from state to state, generally vendors that have broken the law, from violating wage requirements to antitrust statutes, may be debarred or suspended from receiving future public contracts. And states that enter into a contract that uses federal funds are required to verify the status of the contractor or risk external auditing that may result in losing contracts or funds. 

For context, researchers have exposed that contractors have paid out nearly $8.5 billion in penalties to state governments for violations of the False Claims Act and related laws. This information can be found in Violation Tracker, a valuable tool created by corporate subsidies watchdog Good Jobs First that tracks corporations that incur monetary penalties from governmental entities for regulatory violations and other forms of misconduct. 

So how do states compare in disclosing contractor debarment? Recent research from Good Jobs First examining state-level contractor debarment transparency and practices found that nearly three-quarters of states plus the District of Columbia claim to publicly disclose companies that are ineligible from government contracting, but a third of these so-called transparent states have no contractors listed at all—leaving fewer than half with proper debarment disclosure.

Just 22 states plus the District of Columbia have up-to-date public debarment lists available on their websites. States that do a good jobs disclosing debarred companies, may do so by offering comprehensive searchable databases that disclose ineligible contractors (like Washington), they may publish routinely updated lists of disqualified contractors (like Massachusetts), or they may go even further and publish entire dashboards dedicated to calling out companies that have broken the law, such as New York City’s Employer Wall of Shame. Check out the research to understand how your state treats contractor debarment disclosure. 

In the Public Interest has discussed some of these and related issues in our policy brief Responsible Contracting Policies and Practices. You can also read about other approaches to responsible contracting and procurement in our reports, “Harnessing the Power of Procurement: Issues, Considerations, and Best Practices to Advance Equity in the Contracting of Public Goods and Services” and our recently updated brief “Procurement Cost Analyses and the Decision to Contract.” 

Shahrzad Habibi
Research and Policy Director
In the Public Interest