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Another week is coming to a close, and we’re left with more questions than ever about the Trump administration’s limited data dump surrounding recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds. What we have learned, however, are some troubling further details about the program’s failures:

  • Black-owned businesses blocked. A new study confirmed that Black individuals seeking PPP assistance were discriminated against in the application process — undoubtedly contributing to the troubling statistics that roughly 95% of Black-owned businesses stood “close to no chance of receiving a PPP loan through a mainstream bank or credit union” because of how poorly the program was initially structured.
  • IG investigating irregularities. The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) inspector general is investigating hundreds of millions of dollars potentially given out in duplicate loans through the program.
  • Big banks make bank. After an estimated 100,000 small businesses folded during the ongoing crisis, Goldman Sachs reported its “biggest earnings outperformance in nearly a decade” this quarter with $2.42 billion in profits.
  • Data discrepancies. The data included incorrect congressional district information for a whopping 226,000 of the loans the administration gave out — raising questions about what other information might be incorrect. An analysis of the loan data by Bloomberg identified so many anomalies that it stated “the job numbers in one out of every five PPP loans” needed to be called into question.

In all the chaos, we’re still left wondering: where did the money go?

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With next to no accountability or transparency measures in place, the public has been shut out of this process and left in the dark about where our taxpayer dollars are going. This is unacceptable. Enforceable transparency and oversight measures must be included in any new legislation. Disclosure requirements for all aid recipients must be made available to the public."

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US

Yesterday, Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig and Marie Johns, former deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, sent a letter to congressional leaders outlining the core principles needed to make the next PPP package sustainable and effective — including transparency and accountability. Hear more from Herrig and other government accountability experts here.

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