ROM 11-04 Quality of SBA’s Recovery Act Data on Public Websites 3/22/11

This report represents the results of our audit regarding the effectiveness of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) internal controls to ensure the quality of federal spending information that is made available to the public. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires agencies to be accountable for the quality of federal spending information disseminated through public websites and to work to improve the quality and integrity of that information.

Our audit objectives were to (1) determine the accuracy of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) contract awards, Microloans and Microloan technical assistance grants reported by SBA on public web sites, and (2) assess the quality and completeness of information reported by recipients on the use of those funds in accordance with Section 1512 of the Recovery Act. We used the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board’s Recipient Reporting & Data Quality - Final Review Guide as a baseline to plan our audit.