Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., has introduced the “SBA IT Modernization Reform Act of 2024.” The bill calls on the Small Business Administration, through its chief information officer, to take actions to put into effect the recommendations in a recent Government Accountability Office report about the SBA Unified Certification Platform.
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Purpose of the UCP
The report, published on Nov. 6 and released publicly on Nov. 13, details the review GAO conducted regarding the platform’s implementation and rollout. The purpose of the platform is to allow the SBA to consolidate into a single system the multiple legacy IT systems used by the agency to certify whether or not a small business is eligible for contracting assistance programs.
According to the report, SBA intended to deploy UCP in September. The rollout was eventually delayed to Oct. 18 due to a need to address issued that arose during testing. Moving forward, work will have to be done to add more complex functionality, ensure system security and migrate data.
UCP Implementation Issues
In its review, GAO determined that SBA failed to fully implement leading practices for risk management, cybersecurity, and schedule and cost estimation. To address the various issues with the UCP project, GAO offered a total of 14 recommendations, including the need to address risk management and cybersecurity problems. Of the 14, SBA only concurred with three and partially concurred with three others.
Governance of IT Modernization
Under the proposed bill, the SBA administrator would have to submit to Congress a plan that details the steps the agency would take to ensure the proper governance of its IT modernization projects, including the management of cyber and other risks related to the various phases of a project’s lifecycle.
The plan would have to be submitted within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.