Members of the House Committee on Small Business last Wednesday pushed back against Maria Contreras-Sweet, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), after a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on widespread mismanagement within the organization.
Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH) spoke on behalf of the committee during hearings.
“The ongoing problems at SBA, as GAO identified, span the entire breadth of your agency,” Chabot said. “From information technology and security to staff management issues, from disaster response to fraud in your lending and contracting programs, it’s a safe bet that the small businesses in our districts are paying the price for the Agency’s failures.”
The committee suggested that the SBA had failed to implement 30 GAO recommendations related to IT security. Additionally, the SBA had only implemented seven of 69 various recommendations. Concerns over security have grown after repeated cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure.
Following testimony, Contreras-Sweet committed to providing the committee with monthly updates on the progress the SBA is making to address issues outlined by the GAO report.
No timetable was given by the SBA as to when all recommendations would be in effect.