Management Advisory of Fiscal Year 2022 Risk Assessment over SBA’s Charge Card Programs

This management advisory assesses the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) internal controls over purchase and travel card expenditures for fiscal year 2022. In August 2019, OMB issued a revised circular requiring federal agencies to develop a charge card management plan, which is a risk management policy containing an internal control system. SBA’s plan identifies key management officials and their roles and responsibilities and directs employees on how to use data analytics tools and techniques to support spend visibility and analysis. SBA participates in the General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay government-wide charge card program, which is important to our assessment because this program includes data analytics and reporting tools to assist with oversight controls.

Our objective was to perform a risk assessment of SBA’s government purchase card and travel card programs to identify any risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and payments. Our review focused on determining whether SBA implemented effective controls, policies, and procedures to mitigate the risk of charge card misuse, improper, or erroneous purchases and payments.

Our assessment of SBA’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 purchase and travel card programs found the agency is at low risk of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and payments. We found SBA implemented effective internal controls to limit risks to prevent illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases and payments. SBA’s internal controls helped safeguard taxpayer funds against fraud, waste, or abuse. SBA established the use of bank card management analytical and audit tools to manage card program expenses, review cardholders spending patterns, and analyze transaction detail reports to monitor delinquency, potential fraud and misuse, performance metrics, and other noncompliance issues.