About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

GAO-25-108147 1 (July 23, 2025)

handle is hein.gao/uscdlatfcil0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




G      r        ~o    U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
441 G St. N.W.
Washington, DC  20548



July 23, 2025

Mr. Nathan Davis
Chief Financial Officer
Small Business Administration
409 3rd St. S.W., Suite 6000
Washington,  D.C. 20416

U.S. Consolidated  Financial Statements:  Key Issues for the Small Business
Administration

Dear Mr. Davis:

Congratulations on your appointment as Chief Financial Officer of the Small Business
Administration (SBA). As SBA's Chief Financial Officer, you have an important role in helping to
ensure that reliable and complete federal financial information is available. The purpose of this
letter is to highlight important issues for your awareness related to financial management in the
federal government.

GAO  is responsible for conducting the annual audit of the U.S. government's consolidated
financial statements, or CFS.1 On January 16, 2025, we issued a disclaimer of opinion on these
statements for fiscal years 2024 and 2023.2 The consolidated financial statements are compiled
from federal entity financial statements and other federal entity information. As such, federal
entities, including SBA, have a key role in supporting financial reporting at the government-wide
level.

SBA's strong and sustained commitment  is critical to addressing the following key issues that
affect the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements.

SBA's  disclaimers of opinion and  material weaknesses:  SBA  was unable to obtain an
opinion on its fiscal years 2020 through 2024 financial statements. The disclaimers of opinion
were based  on SBA's inability to provide relevant and reliable information to support a
significant number of transactions and account balances related to COVID-19 relief programs,
such as the Paycheck  Protection Program and the COVID-19  Economic  Injury Disaster Loan
program, because  of inadequate processes and controls. These disclaimers contributed to us
being unable to express an opinion on the consolidated financial statements. It is important that
SBA  address the issues causing the disclaimers of opinion to support accurate reporting for the
consolidated financial statements.




1The Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, is required
to annually submit audited financial statements for the executive branch of the U.S. government to the President and
Congress. These statements, as submitted, also include the legislative and judicial branches.

2GAO, Financial Audit: FY 2024 and FY 2023 Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government, GAO-25-
107421 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 16, 2025).


GAO-25-108147  CFS Issues for SBA


Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most