This report presents the results of our audit of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) oversight of the Community Navigator Pilot Program (Navigator program). The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 established the Navigator program and authorized $100 million to provide technical assistance and pandemic recovery services to underserved small businesses and entrepreneurs. SBA awarded 51 grants, ranging from $1 million to $5 million, totaling $99.9 million. The Navigator program had a 2-year period of performance, from December 1, 2021, through November 30, 2023 though most were approved to continue providing services through May 31, 2024. Opportunities existed for SBA to improve measuring and monitoring. Although program officials established performance measures and program goals, there was no established target for the number of underserved clients to reach through the program. In addition, the absence of pertinent information on the client intake form coupled with data quality issues limited the reliability of performance results. We made five recommendations, should the Navigator program continue, for SBA to improve measuring program performance, improve the quality of performance data collection efforts, and track partner organizations participating in the program.
Open Recommendations
| Recommendation Number | Significant Recommendation | Recommended Questioned Costs | Recommended Funds for Better Use | Additional Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
| Should the Navigator program continue, establish performance targets to assess recipient’s progress towards assisting underserved small business owners and entrepreneurs. | |||||
| 2 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
| Should the Navigator program continue, enhance guidance for grant recipients to use acceptable methods to collect more complete client information reported to program officials. | |||||
| 3 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
| Enhance the data validation procedures to ensure program officials check for accuracy and completeness of the performance data grant recipients upload to the system. | |||||
| 4 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
| Establish and implement a risk-based process to compare performance results for Navigator program grant recipients and partner organizations that are also SBA resource partners to ensure performance is separate and discrete. | |||||
| 5 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
| Should the Navigator program continue, update the programmatic compliance checklist to include a separate step to identify changes in partner organizations and ensure the grant recipient received proper prior approval; and implement procedures to promptly update the public website for approved partner organization changes. | |||||
