Federal grants which help thousands of women-owned start-ups have been significantly delayed by disarray and miscommunication, the New York Times reports.

Some of the 98 women’s business centers have been forced “to lay off staff and abandon vendors to stay in business,” according to an audit by the S.B.A. inspector general’s office released by a Senate committee that is investigating the agency.

The business centers, which are in 44 states and 2 territories, helped some 129,000 clients last year, according to S.B.A. data. The centers provide training and technical assistance, help with access to credit and capital, and assist clients in identifying federal contract and international trade opportunities.

The number of companies owned by women has increased by 43 percent in the last decade, to about 7.7 million — about 30 percent of all private firms, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research.

Like the S.B.A., however, whose budget has been halved since 2001, the women’s business centers program has struggled with financing. For fiscal 2008, the Bush administration recommended, for the seventh year, that funding for the program remain unchanged.