Reports

We prepared this white paper to report on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 7(a) loan program performance during SBA’s response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and address potential risks SBA should consider in managing the program. We identified factors that could impact the 7(a) loan program and should be considered in SBA’s program risk strategy. Specifically, in FY 2021, the total amount of loans increased to $31.4 billion from $19.4 billion in FY 2020 (62 percent increase) and $20.6 billion in FY 2019 (53 percent increase), as did the average loan amount...

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s (PRAC) Health Care Subgroup developed this report to share insights about the expansion—and the emerging risks—of telehealth in selected programs across six federal agencies during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The selected programs, which provided telehealth services to about 37 million people in 2020 (up from just three million in 2019), included the Veterans Health Administration, Medicare, TRICARE, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, and Department of Justice prisoner healthcare...

The OIG reviewed the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) progress in monitoring their follow-up of canceled appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the OIG reported that VHA had not followed up on about 32 percent of canceled appointments. VHA then implemented the Cancelled Appointments and Consult Management Initiative and created a cancellation report to track follow-up conducted for appointments originally scheduled to occur after July 21, 2020. The report allowed tracking by types of care, by month, and cumulatively, but VHA did not use all the reporting features. VHA...

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is issuing this management advisory to express concerns regarding the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) decision to end collections on purchased Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans with an outstanding balance of $100,000 or less. In anticipation of a significant number of delinquent PPP loans that lenders will submit for guaranty purchase, we began reviewing SBA’s process for approving PPP guaranty purchases. During our review, we identified concerns with SBA’s decision to end collections on these loans and found that expedited management...

This report presents the results of our follow-up inspection to assess the effectiveness of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) enhanced internal controls to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) to ineligible applicants. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act prohibited the agency from requiring tax return transcripts to prove eligibility. Congress eliminated this restriction 9 months later with the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. We found SBA did not implement the tax transcript requirement in a timely...