**GAO-10-353**                      Published: Mar 30, 2010. Publicly Released: Apr 29, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

The Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) program helps eligible socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses compete in the economy by providing business development activities, such as counseling and technical assistance, and providing opportunities to obtain federal contracts on a set-aside basis. GAO was asked to review SBA's internal control procedures for determining 8(a) eligibility. Specifically, we (1) evaluated the procedures and processes that SBA has implemented to ensure that only eligible firms participate in the 8(a) program, and (2) assessed the extent to which SBA uses external mechanisms such as complaint information in helping to ensure that only eligible firms participate. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed SBA guidance and prior reports, interviewed SBA officials, and conducted site visits and file reviews of 123 randomly sampled 8(a) firms covering the most recent 2 years of annual reviews at five SBA locations.

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William B. Shear
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## Topics

Business Regulation and Consumer Protection

CompetitionData collectionEligibility criteriaInternal controlsProgram managementSmall businessSmall business assistanceSmall business set-asidesSmall disadvantaged business contractorsEligibility determinationsData integrityMonitoringProgram evaluationPolicies and procedures