SBA’s Controls Over Cash Contributions and Gifts, Fiscal Years 2019-20

Before the Small Business Administration (SBA) can accept a gift, the Office of General Counsel must determine that no conflict of interest exists. In addition, SBA must put any cash gifts into a separate account, and OIG is responsible for semiannual audits to ensure the agency is appropriately using and accounting for such gifts.

This compliance report presents the results of our semiannual evaluation (SBA’s) handling of cash contributions and gifts. The objective of the evaluation was to determine the adequacy of SBA controls over the solicitation, acceptance, holding, and use of cash contributions and gifts. 

SBA’s ability to receive and use gifts and donations is governed by the nation’s annual Consolidated Appropriations Acts, which in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 granted SBA the authority to accept gifts of up to $4 million. We determined SBA adequately complied with the Act and SBA policies for the deposits and holdings of $12,499.34 in the Business Assistance Trust Fund.

The agency used $21,943.78 in existing cash funds in accordance with the Acts, regulations, and SBA policies. SBA did not report any cash contributions during the period we evaluated.

We noted a control deficiency related to the extremely overdue closeout of an SBA cosponsored activity. SBA management agreed with one of our three recommendations established a centralized database in SBA’s internal SharePoint system to store all required documents for cosponsored activities. We closed this recommendation.

SBA management did not agree with the remaining recommendations. However, because the activity in question occurred more than 10 years ago and in light of the fact that SBA took actions in response to our evaluation, we agreed to close the recommendations.