WASHINGTON–A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that longstanding management issues at the Small Business Administration continue to go unresolved due to a lack of sustained attention.
“Frequent turnover of political leadership in the federal government, including at SBA, has often made sustaining attention to needed changes difficult,” the GAO said in its analysis, which also offers recommendations across the enterprise for improvement.
The report includes a statement from one SBA official who indicated the agency has taken steps to address the weaknesses that have been identified in the report.
Among those steps are updates to SBA’s standard operating procedure on internal controls and guidance on implementing recommendations made by the GAO in 2014.
The SBA is expected to back $26.5 billion in loans fiscal year 2016, while the SBA 504 program, for real estate and equipment, has been authorized for $7.5 billion for fiscal year 2016.