Need To Further Minority Enterprise Development

A review of selected activities of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise (OMBE) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) focused on: (1) OMBE coordinating responsibilities, specifically the Interagency Council for Minority Enterprise (IAC); and (2) the management assistance program of both SBA and OMBE. The IAC's mission appears to be broad enough to allow it to develop a program designed to increase the effectiveness of Federal minority enterprise programs. One problem IAC faces is the lack of information about program effectiveness; current knowledge of program impact is not adequate to permit the most effective management of the minority enterprise program. However, IAC has certain advantages that should enable it to make constructive contributions: IAC is made up of upper echelon Federal agency officials who might be capable of influencing policy direction, and representatives from the White House and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are IAC members. The role of the coordinating committee should be changed by devoting some of its efforts to identifying specific ways that Federal programs can be more effective. The problem of overlap between OMBE and SBA should not exist, and even though they both provide management and technical assistance to minority businesses, the function of each agency should be mutually exclusive.