SBA Inspector General Finds Serious Errors in Small Business Federal Contracting Data

The U.S. Small Business Administrator, Office of Inspector General recently released report finding that:

1. The SBA certified to the accuracy of its FY 2008 contracting data, although 92 percent of the contracting actions in the sample used by the Inspector General contained one or more inaccurate or incomplete data elements in FPDS.
2. While the SBA had developed a data quality plan for FY 2008, it did not fully implement the plan.
3. Due to the volume of errors identified in FPDS, it appears that contracting personnel did not review FPDS data inputs to ensure they reflected accurate information, as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).
4. While the accuracy of some data elements improved in FY 2009, overall there was a higher rate of error in the FY 2009 data.
5. Approximately 97 percent of the contract actions in their sample contained one or more inaccurate or incomplete data elements, indicating again that SBA contracting personnel were not properly reviewing data entries.
6. SBA's Goaling Report may contain inaccurate information concerning the extent to which the Agency met its small business goals.

Read the full SBA Inspector General report.

These results are not surprising to the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce as we have been reporting serious errors in attribution of contracts and contract dollars to women-owned firms.

Read our report on the inaccuracies in the data (contains information in FY 2006 and FY 2007.

Read our report on the huge opportunity loss for women-owned small business contractors