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In order to receive credit for your project's compliance requirements by hiring Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs), you must showcase that the DBEs are performing a commercially useful function. In the past, some Contractors would hire DBEs to fulfill their diversity requirements but did not have them actually perform the work. DBEs would sub out their work to another firm (typically not a DBE) that would fulfill all of the work instead. To prevent this from happening, Federal, State, and local regulations were put in place that in order to receive credit, hired DBEs must provide a commercially useful function.