SBA Mentor-Protégé Program: 1,218 Applications In, Zero Annual Evaluations

SBA’s Office of Inspector General issued a verification inspection of the Mentor-Protégé Program on September 24, 2026. SBA kept processing applications. It stopped evaluating the relationships entirely.

Read the report: https://legacy.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/SBA%20OIG%20Report%2026-16%20-%20SBA%27s%20Mentor-Protege%20Program.pdf

A verification inspection is a short review. OIG revisits recommendations it already closed, to test whether the agency’s corrective actions still work. This one revisits Report 19-17, issued September 17, 2019, and its four recommendations.

Two of the four are not fully implemented. OIG is reopening one of them.

The numbers. SBA processed 749 application reviews in fiscal year 2025 and 469 in fiscal year 2026 through June. From October 1, 2024 through June 30, 2026, SBA performed no annual evaluations at all. That is 21 months. It left a backlog of 2,000 required evaluations. On July 27, 2026, program officials told OIG they had restarted and completed 14.

Annual evaluations are not paperwork. They are how SBA confirms a protégé actually received the business development assistance the agreement promised.

How the recommendation was closed in the first place. OIG closed the staffing recommendation on November 10, 2022, after SBA assessed its needs and concluded that, with enhanced technology, one additional staff member was necessary, bringing total program staff to six. SBA expected hours spent on annual evaluations to keep falling as analysts grew more proficient with certify.sba.gov. Two years later the evaluations stopped.

OIG made a second finding. SBA “did not sufficiently implement procedures for reviewing business plans during application reviews.” The application files OIG reviewed lacked the required protégé business plan. SBA agreed, and said it will revise its standard operating procedure and clarify the required file documents by December 31, 2026.

There is also a tracking gap. Program officials track how many annual evaluations participants submit. They do not track how many analysts review and complete. OIG found that leaves SBA relying on participant self-certification, and unable to confirm the accuracy of the statistics it reports.

Sources: SBA Office of Inspector General, SBA’s Mentor-Protege Program, Verification Inspection, Report 26-16 (Sept. 24, 2026); Evaluation of SBA’s All Small Mentor-Protege Program, Report 19-17 (Sept. 17, 2019); SBA SOP 80 05 8, Sections C and G, Chapter 12 (Dec. 1, 2021); 13 C.F.R. 125.9; 15 U.S.C. 657r(c).