{"id":62151,"date":"2021-12-01T04:25:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T22:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/s-b-a-gave-3-7-billion-in-improper-relief-payments-auditor-finds\/"},"modified":"2021-12-01T04:25:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T22:55:07","slug":"s-b-a-gave-3-7-billion-in-improper-relief-payments-auditor-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/s-b-a-gave-3-7-billion-in-improper-relief-payments-auditor-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"S.B.A. Gave $3.7 Billion in Improper Relief Payments, Auditor Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">A rushed emergency aid program for small companies devastated by the pandemic improperly sent nearly $3.7 billion to recipients prohibited from receiving federal funds, according to a government audit released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">The finding adds to a mountain of evidence chronicling what the Small Business Administration\u2019s inspector general, Hannibal Ware, called an \u201cunprecedented amount of fraud\u201d in the agency\u2019s pandemic relief efforts. In October, Mr. Ware\u2019s office chastised the agency for improperly doling out billions in relief money to self-employed people who made \u201cflawed or illogical\u201d claims of having additional workers on their payroll.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">Its Economic Injury Disaster Loan program distributed more than $210 billion last year in loans and grants. The program was organized in a hurry by the Trump administration as millions of businesses temporarily shut down because of the coronavirus and was designed to quickly send out money to help companies keep up on their bills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">But the agency failed to do a legally required check of applicants\u2019 identifying details against the Treasury Department\u2019s Do Not Pay system, according to Tuesday\u2019s report from Mr. Ware\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">The Do Not Pay system was set up in 2011 to reduce improper payments to people who are dead, convicted of tax fraud or barred from receiving federal contracts, among other red flags. Mr. Ware found 117,135 applicants who got grants and 75,180 recipients who got loans despite matches in the system indicating a \u201chigh likelihood\u201d that the payments were improper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">Isabella Casillas Guzman, who became the agency\u2019s administrator in March, said at a House hearing this month that she had heightened the agency\u2019s fraud controls over its Covid-19 relief programs. \u201cThe guardrails did not exist\u201d last year, under the prior administration, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">In a response included in Mr. Ware\u2019s report, the Small Business Administration said that on April 6, 2021 \u2014 more than a year after the disaster loan program began \u2014 it started checking Do Not Pay records before sending out funds. The agency also said it would review the loans and grants previously made to recipients who were flagged as ineligible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-axufdj evys1bk0\">\u201cWe agree with the S.B.A. Office of Inspector General that the Trump administration should have applied this risk management tool, and, therefore, the S.B.A. has done just that under the Biden-Harris administration,\u201d Han Nguyen, an agency spokesman, said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rushed emergency aid program for small companies devastated by the pandemic improperly sent nearly $3.7 billion to recipients prohibited from receiving federal funds, according to a government audit released on Tuesday. The finding adds to a mountain of evidence chronicling what the Small Business Administration\u2019s inspector general, Hannibal Ware, called an \u201cunprecedented amount of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":54551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3266],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Bidens-OCC-pick-declares-her-support-for-capitalism-and-community.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}