SMALL
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SBA recently began to address long-standing financial management problems,
but is out in front with its on-line site – BusinessLaw.gov -- to
help small businesses comply with federal regulations.
| Initiative |
Status |
Progress |
| Human
Capital — The agency will retrain its staff and pursue
policies to more effectively reach out to America’s 25 million
small businesses. SBA’s goals are to provide field offices
with greater flexibility to manage programs based upon the needs
of the local community and to centralize loan processing to improve
customer service. SBA has assessed the skills of its staff, committed
funds to training them in marketing and outreach, and developed
new performance standards to hold staff accountable for their
service to SBA customers. |
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• |
| Competitive
Sourcing — SBA has conducted an inventory and identified
staff positions that should be subjected to a public-private should
competition in 2003. |
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• |
| Financial
Performance — SBA deteriorated in this initiative because
it has encountered significant challenges in accounting for loan
asset sales, meeting accounting performance standards, and measuring
risk in its loan portfolio more accurately. |
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• |
| Enhancing
E-Government —
SBA, in partnership with federal agencies and state governments
has developed the Business Compliance One-Stop, part of the BusinessLaw.gov
on-line system to help entrepreneurs easily find, understand,
and comply with the myriad of regulations that affect their businesses.
|
•
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• |
| Budget/Performance
Integration — SBA is strong in some areas of budget
performance and integration, however, it needs to develop outcome
measures for technical assistance programs and make funding decisions
according to expectations of program performance. |
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• |
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indicate change in status since baseline evaluation on September 30,
2001. |
Program
Assessments
The Program
Assessment Rating Tool was applied to four of the Small Business Administration’s
(SBA) programs. The assessment of these programs revealed some duplication
in the provision of technical assistance and business loans. Across the
board, the agency lacks measures that demonstrate program effectiveness
in achieving outcomes. Generally, the assessed programs achieved an “above
average” rating in the area of management and “average”
ratings for planning and results.
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