COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Servicing Capability

The Office of Inspector General is issuing this management advisory to gain an understanding of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) servicing processes and determine its capability to service more than 2 million COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).

We found the COVID-19 EIDL Servicing Center (CESC) demonstrated that it was capable of servicing over 2 million COVID EIDLs during the period of our review. The CESC appeared to be adequately staffed as evidenced by its ability to complete over 23,500 servicing actions per month with an average processing time of 5.44 days per action. However, we identified opportunities for improvement related to formal documentation and issuance of performance goals and written COVID-19 EIDL servicing guidance.

We made two recommendations for SBA to ensure appropriate processes are followed and to effectively monitor CESC operations. SBA management agreed with both recommendations and has taken actions to implement both. Management’s actions satisfy the intent of the recommendations; therefore, both recommendations will be closed upon issuance of this report.