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Open Recommendations (31 total)

Disability Employment: Hiring Has Increased but Actions Needed to Assess Retention, Training, and Reasonable Accommodation Efforts

GAO-20-384
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The Administrator of SBA should develop and implement policies and procedures for obtaining employee feedback about the agency's reasonable accommodations efforts and use such information to evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of the program. This may include identifying any effects on employee retention, identifying potential risks, and determining any improvements that may be warranted. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
According to SBA, as of December 2020, it has implemented actions to evaluate the effectiveness of its Reasonable Accommodation (RA) program. For example, SBA stated that it implemented a revised Employee Exit Survey to solicit feedback relating to the agency's efforts to recruit, hire, and advance individuals with disabilities. According to SBA, survey results are assessed on a quarterly basis to determine whether there were any concerns related to being accommodated during their employment at the agency. SBA stated it developed an RA survey to solicit employees' and managers' feedback with the RA process. According to SBA, this is a survey that will be deployed to both managers and employees at the time a decision is made and implemented, and the case has been closed. The agency plans to deploy the survey starting in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. In addition, SBA created a Reasonable Accommodation mailbox for employees and applicants to anonymously submit inquiries about any disability-related matters or reasonable accommodation requests, which may include medical documentation that they are uncomfortable sharing with their supervisors. In September 2022, SBA provided an update and corresponding documentation, which included RA survey results, exit survey results, and employee separation data by disability. In January 2023, we requested additional supporting documentation of how the agency's efforts are captured in SBA policies and procedures. According to SBA, it revised its Reasonable Accommodation and Personal Assistance Service Policy and Procedures in July 2021, however did not include assessing the effectiveness of the RA process. SBA stated it plans do add this in a later version, or addendum, of its policy. In March 2023, SBA (1) provided documentation that it continued the survey through Q1 of Fiscal Year 2023, and (2) stated that it has taken steps to update its procedures to capture these actions, but that the addendum is not yet complete. This would help to indicate that the agency expects to continue and institutionalize its efforts with regard to obtaining employee feedback about the agency's RA efforts and using such information to evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of the program. When we receive the requested documentation, we will update the status of this recommendation accordingly. As of July 2023, SBA said it is continuing efforts to close this recommendation. In January 2024, SBA reiterated that an update is forthcoming. Once we receive additional information from SBA, we will update this recommendation accordingly.

Restaurant Revitalization Fund: Opportunities Exist to Improve Oversight

GAO-22-105442
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access should develop and implement policies and procedures for addressing RRF recipients who do not meet annual reporting requirements. (Recommendation 3)
Open – Partially Addressed
In July 2023, SBA sent a final letter to recipients urging them to submit their annual reports. In September 2023, SBA provided documentation of steps taken to communicate with recipients who had not met reporting requirements, as well as documentation of procedures for recovering funds for recipients who do not comply with the reporting requirement. In March 2024, SBA officials said about 10 percent of recipients had not submitted a post-award report (which had been due by April 30, 2023). SBA officials said that they are planning to send letters to the overdue recipients requesting they return their awards. In April 2024, SBA officials said that the letters would be dispersed after they complete a system update that would allow recipients to remit their awards. According to SBA's post-award recovery procedures, SBA will refer recipients that fail to submit post-award reports to the Office of General Counsel who will determine if it should be referred to the Department of Justice. This recommendation will remain open until SBA provides evidence of implementing these procedures.

Tribal Economic Development: Action is Needed to Better Understand the Extent of Federal Support

GAO-22-105215
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The Assistant Administrator of SBA's Office of Native American Affairs, in coordination with tribes, should establish a plan for periodically analyzing and publicly reporting the amount of economic development assistance provided by SBA to tribal entities and using that analysis to identify opportunities to improve assistance to tribal entities. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
As of March 2024, SBA has continued to take steps to address this recommendation. For example, SBA held a series of three listening sessions during 2023 to identify barriers to accessing SBA's business counseling services and any resulting impact to tribal and Native American businesses. In addition, according to SBA data, SBA-backed loans to American Indian and Alaska Native entrepreneurs had nearly doubled from $139 million in fiscal year 2020 to $278 million in fiscal year 2023. SBA told us that this data is based on voluntary reporting of race and may not be comprehensive. As we reported in August 2022, geographic analyses that supplement analyses of race can provide additional insight into the reach of SBA programs in tribal communities. To fully implement this recommendation, SBA's Office of Native American Affairs needs to show evidence of regular data analysis and public reporting on the amount of economic development assistance provided by SBA to tribal entities (in addition to data analysis based on race), as well as a plan for how they will use the results of this analysis to improve opportunities for assistance to tribal entities.

Restaurant Revitalization Fund: Opportunities Exist to Improve Oversight

GAO-22-105442
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4 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access should conduct and document an assessment of the RRF pre-award controls and address or mitigate deficiencies. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In July 2023, SBA said it will use the results of the RRF post-award reviews to inform the effectiveness of the pre-award controls and apply lessons learned to future emergency programs. In April 2024, SBA stated it had completed about 25 percent of the post-award reviews and planned to finish all post-award reviews by the end of fiscal year 2025. Subsequently, in fiscal year 2026, SBA plans to evaluate the pre-award controls using the results of the post-award reviews. SBA will provide GAO with a copy of this assessment when it is complete. This recommendation will remain open until SBA provides documentation of its assessment of the pre-award controls.
Small Business Administration The Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access should assess how the design of RRF pre-award controls may have adversely affected applicants from U.S. territories, and identify and document steps to mitigate this issue for future programs. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In January 2023, SBA stated that it would offer to participate in a government-wide dialogue to address systemic weaknesses related to IRS and territories' tax validation systems. In April 2024, SBA officials said they maintained this position and opposed using taxpayer funds to conduct such an assessment because the challenges with IRS and territory tax transcript processing are government-wide in nature and well-documented. This recommendation will remain open until SBA (1) assesses how the design of RRF pre-award controls may have adversely affected applicants from U.S. territories, and (2) documents steps to mitigate this issue for future programs.
Small Business Administration The Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access should enhance RRF post-award reporting procedures by adding requirements for recipients to report their operating status. (Recommendation 4)
Open
In January 2023, SBA stated that it was weighing potential solutions, such as adding functionality in the RRF platform to allow recipients to report their operating status. By the time final reports were due in April 2023, SBA had not updated the reporting portal to track operating status. In July 2023, SBA said it was reviewing the operating status for the 10 percent of awards undergoing manual review, including research into whether the business was currently open and if it had been closed at the time of RRF application. As of April 2024, SBA officials told us they had completed about 25 percent of the over 10,000 planned post-award reviews. The officials said they anticipated completing all reviews by the end of fiscal year 2025. We will continue to monitor SBA's implementation of its post-award reviews, including how its assessing recipients' operating status in its post-award reviews. This recommendation will remain open until SBA provides documentation that it has verified recipient operating status for all recipients undergoing post-award reviews.
Small Business Administration
Priority Rec.
The Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access should develop and implement a plan to respond to potentially fraudulent and ineligible RRF awards in a prompt and consistent manner. This plan should include coordinating with the OIG to align efforts to address fraud. (Recommendation 7)
Open
A July 2023 SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report similarly found that SBA had not prioritized reviewing awards flagged for fraud, specifically noting that some awards flagged in May 2021 had not yet been reviewed over two years later. The OIG recommended that SBA prioritize reviewing these flagged awards and SBA agreed with the recommendation. In September 2023, SBA officials also told us they would prioritize reviewing awards flagged for potential fraud and provide us with documentation of their actions in response to the OIG's recommendation. As of April 2024, SBA officials said that they had prioritized reviewing flagged RRF awards and that they had conducted initial reviews of all flagged awards for which recipients had submitted post-award reports. In addition, SBA provided us with its post-award review and recovery plans. However, these plans do not include procedures prioritizing the review of potentially fraudulent awards or procedures for referring suspicious activity to its OIG with information that will be useful to the OIG. Furthermore, SBA officials said they had not closed the OIG's related recommendation and were targeting a July 2024 date. This recommendation will remain open until SBA provides us with documentation showing it has implemented the OIG's recommendation and has documented that it is prioritizing the review of potentially fraudulent and ineligible awards in its post-award reviews.

COVID Relief: Fraud Schemes and Indicators in SBA Pandemic Programs

GAO-23-105331
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The Administrator of SBA, in coordination with the Fraud Risk Management Board, should ensure that SBA has identified external sources of data that can facilitate the verification of applicant information and the detection of potential fraud across its programs. It should then develop a plan for obtaining access to those sources, which may involve pursuing statutory authority or entering into data-sharing agreement to obtain such access. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In November 2023, SBA reported that it has procured third-party services to implement its Know Your Customer initiative for validating customer identity and improving payment integrity. SBA also reported that it has engaged with other federal agencies regarding data sharing to improve SBA's fraud risk management capabilities. Specifically, SBA reported that it was engaging with the Payment Integrity Center of Excellence (PICOE) within the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Fiscal Service on its Do Not Pay (DNP) services and solutions to evaluate if new tools and services such as Account Verification Services, Email and Social Intelligence, and DNP Data Analytics (i.e., Electronic Verification of Vital Events, which includes death data and the WorkNumber income verification, among others) can be utilized to improve payment integrity. As of February 2024, SBA was still in the process of implementing its efforts to identify and develop a plan to obtain access to external data. We will continue to monitor SBA's progress in this area.

Small Business Subcontracting: Some Contracting Officers Face Challenges Assessing Compliance with the Good Faith Standard

GAO-24-106225
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The SBA Administrator should develop and implement actionable steps to ensure compliance with the statutory requirement to include agency-level data in its annual report to Congress on status of small business subcontracting plan goals. (Recommendation 10)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Small Business Subcontracting: Some Contracting Officers Face Challenges Assessing Compliance with the Good Faith Standard

GAO-24-106225
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Small Business Administration The SBA Administrator should analyze the risk of having a limited understanding of federal contractors' noncompliance with their subcontracting plans, based on current practices, and determine whether the Office of Government Contracting should conduct additional reviews. (Recommendation 11)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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