MEMORANDUM
TO: Karen G. Mills
Administrator
FROM: Peggy E. Gustafson
Inspector General
SUBJECT: Fiscal Year 2010 Report on the Most Serious Management andPerformance Challenges Facing the Small Business Administration
In accordance with the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, we are providing you with the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Report on the Most Serious Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Small Business Administration (SBA). This report represents our current assessment of Agency programs and/or activities that pose significant risks, including those that are particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, error, mismanagement or inefficiencies. The Challenges are not presented in order of priority, as we believe that all are critical management or performance issues.
Our report is based on specific OIG, Government Accountability Office (GAO), and other official reports, as well as our general knowledge of SBA’s programs and operations. Our analysis generally considers those accomplishments that SBA reported as of September 30, 2009.
Within each Management Challenge there are a series of “recommended actions” to resolve the Challenge. Each recommended action is assigned a color “status” score. The scores are as follows: Green for Implemented; Yellow for Substantial Progress; Orange for Some Progress; and Red for No Progress. An upwards arrow in the color box indicates that the color score improved over last year’s report. As part of the OIG’s continuing evaluation of the Management Challenges, certain Challenges have been updated or revised. In addition, actions that were scored Green last year, and which remained Green this year, have been moved up to the “history bar” above the recommended actions. The history bar highlights any progress that the Agency has made on a Challenge over the past four FYs (or as long as the Challenge has existed, if shorter) by showing the number of actions that have moved to Green each year.
This year’s report contains two new Management Challenges dealing with (1) SBA’s Loan Management and Accounting System (LMAS) project, and (2) improper payments in the Disaster and 7(a) loan programs. Since these two Management Challenges are new, no color scores have been assigned; the Agency’s progress in resolving them will be assessed during FY 2010 and color scores will be assigned in next year’s report.
For further information, please refer to the attached document.
