SBA's Corrective Actions to Reduce 8(a) Firms Eligibility Risks

This report presents the results of our inspection of SBA’s corrective actions for two recommendations made in previous Office of Inspector General audit reports on the 8(a) Business Development Program. Our most recent audits of SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program have identified internal control weaknesses that allowed ineligible firms to be certified and participate in the program. This follow up inspection focuses on two significant weaknesses OIG identified during previous reviews of SBA’s 8(a) program eligibility and continuing eligibility processes.

In SBA OIG Audit Report 16-13, SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program Eligibility we reported that SBA did not properly document that 8(a) firms admitted in the program met all eligibility criteria because managers overturned lower-level reviewers’ recommendations for denial without fully documenting how the identified eligibility concerns had been resolved.

In addition, in SBA OIG Audit Report 18-22, Improvements Needed in SBA’s Oversight of 8(a) Continuing Eligibility Processes, we reported that SBA did not perform required continuing eligibility reviews when it received specific and credible complaints regarding the firms’ eligibility and did not log all complaints referred by the OIG Hotline.

We inspected SBA’s corrective actions for two recommendations made to address these weaknesses and verified the corrective actions SBA implemented effectively ensured that program officials justified their recommendations to admit firms applying to the 8(a) program and program officials tracked complaints received about firms’ participating in the 8(a) program.