Small Business Administration

SBA has a robust payment integrity process that is constantly evolving to respond to laws, regulations, executive orders, and the results of PIIA reviews.

In Accordance with A-123, SBA conducts periodic risk assessments. Programs identified as susceptible to improper payments are subject to statistical sampling, detailed review by QA staff, extrapolation to the population, and detailed reporting.

While OIG found SBA to be non-compliant with PIIA, it was largely due to requirements to improve publishing of information related to the PIIA reviews and corrective actions and improving procedures for specific programs. SBA is working on addressing each requirement incrementally, while reassessing how to further improve and restructure the PIIA process and oversight to ensure consistency in approach and reporting. SBA anticipates having a more outlined process in FY 2027.

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Agency level Payment Integrity results

  • Payment accuracy rate

    (Based on federal funding spent by programs determined by agencies as susceptible to improper payments)

  • Improper payments rate

    (Based on federal funding spent by programs determined by agencies as susceptible to improper payments)

  • Unknown payments rate

    (Based on federal funding spent by programs determined by agencies as susceptible to improper payments)

  • Small Business Administration improper payment estimates over time
    View as:

    Chart toggle amounts:
    Proper payments
    Overpayment
    Underpayment
    Technically improper
    Unknown

Recovery information

View as:

Chart toggle amounts:
Overpayment amount identified for recapture
Overpayment amount recovered

Recovery of overpayments

Please note: Overpayment amounts recovered are reported in the year they were recovered, not the year they were identified. Therefore it is possible in some years to have a recovery rate greater than 100%.

Overpayment amount identified through recovery activities $616.18 M
Overpayment amount recovered through recovery activities $3.81 M
Recovery activities recovery rate 0.62 %

Why recovery audits are not cost effective in certain programs

In prior years, SBA has conducted cost-benefit analysis on programs subject to payment recapture audit and deemed the cost to perform a payment recapture audit outweighed the benefits of the audit. Although payment recapture is not conducted, SBA makes every effort to recover any improper payments identified through the improper payment review process or other internal review process.

Intentional monetary loss improper payments are more commonly referred to as financial fraud and are overpayments that occur on purpose. This agency reported $318.78M of confirmed fraud in this reporting cycle.

Supplemental Information

The Agency has implemented real-time API calls to DNP for loan approvals and disbursements. DNP information has proven useful in the approval and disbursement of awards, in conjunction with other Risk Management processes performed by the Agency.

The Working System has reduced/prevented improper payments:

The Working System strives to maintain accurate data. However, the past year, SBA has identified incorrect information in the Working System Daily.

SBA was found non-compliant during the most recent PIIA compliance review.

Non-compliant programs:

Show full list of compliant programs Expand

Compliant programs:

  • 7(j) Technical Assistance
  • 8(a) Business Development Program
  • Community Navigator Pilot Program
  • Congressional Grants
  • Cybersecurity for Small Business Pilot Program
  • Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance
  • Federal and State Technology Partnership Program
  • Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
  • HUBZone Program
  • Intermediary Loan Program
  • Lab-to-Market
  • Microloan Program
  • Native American Outreach
  • OED Resource Partners Training Portal (RPTP)
  • Ombudsman and Regulatory Fairness Boards
  • Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Approvals
  • Prime Technical Assistance
  • Regional Innovation Clusters
  • Restaurant Revitalization Fund
  • SBA Administrative Payroll
  • SBA Administrative Travel
  • SBA Emerging Leaders initiative
  • SBA Other Administrative Spending
  • Service Corps of Retired Executives Program (SCORE)
  • Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
  • Small Business Investment Companies Advances
  • Small Business Investment Companies Purchases
  • State Trade Expansion Program
  • Surety Bond Guarantees (SBG)
  • Transition Assistance Entrepreneurship Track (Boots to Business)
  • Veterans Outreach Program
  • Women's Business Ownership Assistance

Actions recommended and planned to achieve compliance

Implement robust internal and quality control to ensure accurate reporting of annual IP; formalize risk assessment processes. Implement monitoring controls to obtain required documentation from loan recipients. Implement appropriate preventative and monitoring controls to determine the eligibility of loans prior to loan approvals. Oversee statistician’s work to verify that documentation supports the results. Implement adequate quality review procedures to ensure relevant data fields completely and accurately reported. Implement review process to ensure corrective actions plans developed, implemented, and published respond to the root causes of improper and unknown payments.


Official(s) accountable for the progress of the agency coming into compliance

Nathan Davis, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer


Accountability mechanism tied to the success of the official designated in leading the efforts to come Into compliance

Executive performance ratings include a performance level related to review, compliance and audit remediation efforts


Program name When was the last improper payment risk assessment conducted? Likely to be susceptible to significant improper payments? Substantial changes made to the assessment methodology used for the reporting cycle
504 Certified Development Loans Approvals 2025 No Yes
7(a) Loan Guarantees Approvals 2025 No Yes
7(a) Loan Guarantees Purchases 2025 No Yes
7(j) Technical Assistance *
8(a) Business Development Program *
Community Navigator Pilot Program 2022 No No
Congressional Grants 2023 No No
Cybersecurity for Small Business Pilot Program *
Disaster Assistance Loans 2025 No Yes
Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance *
Federal and State Technology Partnership Program *
Growth Accelerator Fund Competition 2024 No No
HUBZone Program *
Intermediary Loan Program *
Lab-to-Market *
Microloan Program 2020 No No
Native American Outreach *
OED Resource Partners Training Portal (RPTP) 2022 No No
Ombudsman and Regulatory Fairness Boards *
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Approvals *
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Forgiveness 2025 No Yes
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Guaranty Purchases 2025 No Yes
Prime Technical Assistance *
Regional Innovation Clusters *
Restaurant Revitalization Fund 2024 No No
SBA Administrative Payroll 2022 No No
SBA Administrative Travel 2022 No No
SBA Emerging Leaders initiative *
SBA Other Administrative Spending *
Section 1112 Payments for SBA’s business loan programs 2025 No No
Service Corps of Retired Executives Program (SCORE) *
Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program 2025 No Yes
Small Business Development Center (SBDC) 2022 No No
Small Business Investment Companies Advances 2022 No No
Small Business Investment Companies Purchases *
State Trade Expansion Program 2022 No No
Surety Bond Guarantees (SBG) 2020 No No
Transition Assistance Entrepreneurship Track (Boots to Business) *
Veterans Outreach Program 2022 No No
Women's Business Ownership Assistance 2022 No No

* Assessment year is not displayed because one or more of the following statements is true:

  1. Not required to conduct a risk assessment under the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019,
  2. Already assessed for improper payment risk under a different name in a prior reporting period, and/or
  3. New and planning to perform a risk assessment in the future.

1. For Fraud question (fra5): answer is produced by adding dollar amounts listed in the legal action column form Appendix E & F of the OIG semiannual reports.
2. For recovery audit & activities: SBA has reviewed specific programs and performed audits to validate the validity of the program payments. In cases where the payments were not valid, SBA has developed a recovery process for each specific program, including sending demand letters and Treasury referral of the debt. If funds are recovered through recovery audits, funds will be returned to Treasury or the original account.
3. For risk assessment of Phase 1 programs: the team that had worked on risk assessment are no longer with SBA. Their scheduled RA didn't happen later but SBA will work on it for next year.