Small Business Administration: Opportunities Exist to Improve Oversight of Women's Business Centers and Coordination among SBA's Business Assistance Programs

At the time of our review, District Office Technical Representatives (DOTRs) had three categories of responsibilities for the WBC program--liaison, oversight manager and advisor, and advocate for WBCs in their district--and SBA officials told us that ideally, DOTRs should focus on the oversight and liaison roles. In June 2008, SBA revised the responsibilities for its DOTRs, eliminating the advocacy role that required DOTRs to, among other tasks (1) coordinate with OWBO to improve the program and resolve issues; (2) educate SBA personnel, resource partners such as Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) and SCORE, and others about WBC services; and (3) collect success stories from WBCs to be used for publicizing the program. In addition to eliminating this role, SBA revised its guidance for DOTRs, including detailed instructions for carrying out semi-annual and annual WBC reviews. Further, SBA included information on WBC oversight and a self-study component for DOTRs on its new internal OWBO website to supplement annual training conferences for DOTRs. The actions that SBA has taken to reduce responsibilities and improve guidance for DOTRs should help to increase assurance that WBCs are being monitored more effectively and meeting program requirements, and federal funds for the program are not being misused or wasted.

To establish a communication strategy, in January 2008, SBA said it would launch an internal OWBO website for WBCs and District Office Technical Representatives (DOTRs) and had launched the website by August 2008. SBA said it has plans to continually expand and update this resource as new information, policies, and procedures come into play. At present, the website provides WBCs with guidance on (1) performance management, (2) grant management, (3) financial management, and (4) marketing and branding (includes SBA logo files for download). The website also provides online tutorials for WBCs on budgets, expenditures, and other items. SBA's addition of a new website that acts as a communication and resource tool for WBCs should help to keep WBCs more informed about program requirements, including updates, and enable the centers to be more knowledgeable of and successful in the program.

SBA agreed to address this recommendation. Beginning in fiscal year 2008, SBA included language on the need for SBA resource partners to coordinate in the applications for Women's Business Centers, Small Business Development Centers and SCORE. SBA also said it would collect best practices on local coordination efforts and share those practices on the website available to SBA resource partners, but the agency has not yet completed this action. In February 2012, SBA provided documentation of two initiatives implemented to encourage greater collaboration among its resource partners and to provide opportunities for collaboration to take place. First, SBA will host a Collaboration Summit in March 2012, which will bring together thought leaders of all resource partner groups and SBA's Field Office structure. The purpose of the 2-day summit is to identify ways to improve collaboration among partners; identify success factors and barriers; and discuss how best to find best practice models throughout the networks and share learning from those best practices to advance their replication. The conference and the work plan generated from it will assist SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development in providing advice on how best to use federal resources on a more effective and efficient manner. Second, SBA will present a new Champions of Collaboration Award at National Small Business Week in May 2012. The award will honor a collaborative group of SBA resource partners that have advanced opportunities for entrepreneurial development, including providing a wider variety of training and counseling to small business owners.