Strength in diversity

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General faced unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a diverse staff was able to weather the storm. Inspector General Hannibal Ware details how his organization built a diverse workforce able to withstand tough times and how other organizations can do the same.

Two years ago, my organization, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), faced a challenge like no other. A global pandemic required us to work remotely, changing everything about our day-to-day operations. While much of the world was slowing down, we were ramping up at lightning speed to oversee the colossal disbursement of more than $1 trillion in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) to small businesses across the U.S. affected by COVID-19. But we rose to the challenge, and we couldn’t have succeeded in overseeing this significant pandemic-relief program and combating the fraud accompanying it if it hadn’t been for a work culture built on diversity and inclusion. (See “Paycheck Protection Program,” U.S. Small Business Administration, and “Biden’s new SBA head on Covid loans and financial relief businesses can still get,” by Eric Rosenbaum, CNBC, Aug. 11, 2021.)