A key portion of the National Archives and Records Administration’s decade-long, $453 million project to create an electronic records archiving system might not be ready in time to receive the Bush administration’s electronic records, according to government auditors and the agency’s inspector general.
NARA’s Electronic Records Archives (ERA) system has faced a series of delays and cost overruns since September 2005, when the agency awarded Lockheed Martin a six-year, $317 million cost-plus-award-fee contract to build the information technology system. NARA and Lockheed Martin officials say the base ERA system — with reduced capabilities — will be ready by the end of June, and a separate system for the presidential records — the so-called EOP system — will be available by the end of the year.
However, on May 14, Linda Koontz, director of information management issues at the Government Accountability Office, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security Subcommittee that the timeframe for the presidential records system remains in jeopardy.
“I think this is a system still at risk,” she said. “I would agree to the need for a mitigation plan.”
NARA officials said they have an alternate plan in case the system is not ready in time for the presidential transition. NARA and Lockheed Martin officials also say they will merge the EOP system, which uses a commercial product, into the base ERA system to create the originally envisioned consolidated system by its 2011 goal.
Company officials said they worked with NARA early in the contract to scale down the capabilities of the base ERA system after it became clear that funding issues were going to prevent NARA from spending the anticipated $130 million for the program’s initial software development. Instead, the base ERA system that will develop e-record schedules, request e-record transfers, and inspect and store records will cost about $60 million.
Digg
De.licio.us
Slashdot
Technorati
