SBA’s Controls to Address Financial Statements Audit Disclaimers and Material Weaknesses

Over the last 5 years, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) has been unable to pass a financial audit, receiving disclaimers of opinion year after year. The independent public auditor has been unable to offer an opinion on the financial state of SBA because it has not received sufficient evidence to support a number of balances. We reviewed SBA’s history of disclaimers and material weaknesses from fiscal years 2020 to 2024, open recommendations, and SBA’s new strategy for addressing material weaknesses and obtaining a clean audit opinion.

SBA’s accounting deficiencies were primarily related to administering an unprecedented amount of disaster assistance aid and guaranteed loan funds to help eligible small business owners and entrepreneurs adversely affected by the pandemic. Over the course of 18 months, the agency delivered 22.1 million pandemic assistance loans and grants, totaling $1.2 trillion. To address the systemic financial reporting deficiencies, SBA launched its Financial Statement Audit Remediation Strategy in January 2025 to resolve the seven material weaknesses and 56 open audit recommendations.

We made four recommendations to enhance implementation of SBA’s financial statements remediation strategy. We recommended the Administrator appoint a senior executive to lead the effort and emphasize audit remediation priorities through consistent agencywide communication. We also recommended that the remediation strategy be incorporated into SBA’s next strategic plan and individual performance plans to ensure accountability. SBA management agreed with all four recommendations.