NORFOLK, Va. — To ensure veterans are getting a fair share, a new report indicates federal procedures and guidelines for reporting on veteran-owned businesses need to be improved.
There are nearly 2 million veteran-owned small businesses across the United States that provide an annual payroll of $256 billion and employ 5.5 million workers.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is required by federal law to give special consideration to veterans for its lending programs.
But the agency hasn't developed policies and procedures to do so, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO report found that the SBA's standard operating procedures do not explain how the agency will provide special consideration to veterans in accordance with the SBA.
It also found that the SBA lacked procedures for reporting to congressional committees and it could not demonstrate compliance in recent years.
"When we looked at the regulations that the Small Business Administration has put out, we found it to be very vague and hard to operationalize by the lender," said Dan Garcia-Diaz, Managing Director of the GAO's Financial Markets & Community Investment team, in an interview with 13 News Now.
Garcia-Diaz added that it's urgent the SBA makes improvements.
"It's really important that SBA continues to focus and serve this population as Congress intended," he said. "It is in our interest to see worthy businesses, veteran-owned businesses included, to get access to capital and especially in that these programs are supported by all of us taxpayers."