New Jersey Small Business Development Center’s Compliance with Cooperative Agreement Requirements

Title Full

The Office of Inspector General is issuing an inspection report to determine whether the New Jersey Small Business Development Center met financial, programmatic, and performance requirements.

Date Issued

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Submitting OIG

Small Business Administration OIG

Agencies Reviewed/Investigated

Small Business Administration

Report Number

25-17

Report Description

The Office of Inspector General is issuing an inspection report to determine whether the New Jersey Small Business Development Center met financial, programmatic, and performance requirements. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is authorized to make grants to states, institutions of higher education, and Women’s Business Centers to establish Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs). Since 1978, Rutgers University has been a recipient and hosts the New Jersey SBDC to administer the program.

For program year (PY) 2023, SBA awarded the New Jersey SBDC $3,620,094 in federal funds and the center contributed $4,303,349 in matching funds, for a total budget of $7,923,443. The period of performance for PY 2023 is from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2024.

We identified operational improvements to protect program integrity and performance, such as maintaining counselors certified to assist small businesses with exporting, publicizing operating hours, informing SBDC personnel of whistleblower protections, and improving coordination with SBA so the center’s progress towards performance goals can be accurately tracked and monitored.

Report Type

Inspection / Evaluation

Agency Wide

Yes

Number of Recommendations

Questioned Costs

Funds for Better Use

Report updated under NDAA 5274

Open Recommendations

This report has 10 open recommendations.

Recommendation Number	Significant Recommendation	Recommended Questioned Costs	Recommended Funds for Better Use
1	Yes	$0	$0
Reinforce the New Jersey Small Business Development Center’s adherence to requirements that costs spent on consultants are reasonable and supportable as prescribed in 2 CFR § 200.459.
2	Yes	$0	$0
Remedy $164,088 in unsupported expenses for consultant costs that are without established rate agreements.
3	Yes	$0	$0
Reinforce the New Jersey Small Business Development Center’s adherence to requirements on allowable types of hospitality cost under 13 CFR § 130.465 and Program Terms and Conditions, Section 7. Compare the $8,217 in unallowable costs to any overmatch funds per 13 CFR § 130.450(g) and recover costs as appropriate.
4	Yes	$0	$0
Instruct the New Jersey SBDC to submit an updated budget that reflects the $420,700 impact of the service center closure to evaluate whether funds are allowable in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.308(c)(5)(7).
5	Yes	$0	$0
Update the SBA resource partner website to reflect active New Jersey Small Business Development Center service centers.
6	Yes	$0	$0
Instruct the New Jersey Small Business Development Center to reconcile $75,247 of program income across the network to ensure generated income and expenses are accounted for and reported accurately in accordance with 13 CFR § 130.480.
7	Yes	$0	$0
Enforce the requirement for the New Jersey Small Business Development Center to timely adhere to export certification requirements and regularly report on its compliance status to SBA in accordance with Notice of Funding Section 5.1.4.4.
8	Yes	$0	$0
Ensure the New Jersey Small Business Development Center is maintaining sufficient accessibility to its facilities and appropriate staff levels and notifying clients of service centers’ hours of operation in accordance with 15 USC § 648(c)(2).
9	Yes	$0	$0
Ensure the New Jersey Small Business Development Center implements a process to ensure all personnel funded by federal grant funds are notified of their whistleblower protection rights in accordance with 41 U.S.C § 4712.
10	Yes	$0	$0
Ensure the New Jersey Small Business Development Center relates financial data and program accomplishments toward meeting the performance goals for the entire performance period as 2 CFR § 200.329(b) requires.