Providing Timely and Effective Disaster Assistance

The primary challenge facing SBA's Office of Disaster Assistance (ODA) will be to maintain and build on the progress that has been made over the past 2 years in disaster planning and preparedness. SBA and ODA have taken a number of steps to address planning and preparedness limitations that compromised the agency's ability to provide timely disaster financial assistance to the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. SBA actions included

• expanding and stress testing the maximum concurrent user capacity of the Disaster Credit Management System (the system that is used to process disaster loan applications),
• incorporating catastrophe models into the disaster-planning process,
• and better ensuring that qualified disaster response staff will be in place and housed in appropriate facilities to carry out their responsibilities.

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

Though SBA has taken positive steps to improve its response to a major disaster, continued progress will require an ongoing commitment by SBA. It will be incumbent upon SBA's leadership to ensure that appropriate disaster planning and resource commitment remain a high priority, including during periods when disasters are not as frequent. Furthermore, SBA must ensure that it fully implements the reforms Congress passed in the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvements Act of 2008 that intended to strengthen SBA's ability to respond to disaster victims.

SBA should develop an implementation plan and report to Congress on the agency's progress in addressing the requirements of the Act, including milestone dates for completing implementation.

SBA should develop procedures for regional entities that would enable SBA to meet all region-specific requirements of the Act and ensure regional entities, such as Small Business Development Centers, have this information and other Disaster Loan Program information readily available prior to the likely occurrence of a disaster.

The agency also needs to expeditiously issue an updated Disaster Recovery Plan that reflects recent changes resulting from the Act's requirements, as well as SBA's own reform efforts.

To address concerns applicants have had with the application process, SBA needs to develop and implement a process to address identified problems in the disaster loan application process for future applicants.

Highlights of GAO-09-755 (PDF)

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