[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 17, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2748-2750]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-00623]


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SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION


Privacy Act of 1974 System of Records Notice

AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration.

ACTION: Notice of a modified system of records.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) proposes to 
modify its system of records titled, Government Contracting and 
Business Development System (SBA 30), to its inventory of records 
systems subject to the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended. Publication of 
this notice complies with the Privacy Act and the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) Circulars A-108 and A-130 requirement for agencies to 
publish a notice in the Federal Register whenever the agency 
establishes a new, modified or rescinds a system of records. System of 
Records Notice (SORN) Government Contracting and Business Development 
System, (SBA 30), includes modifying authority, categories of 
individuals, categories of records, record source categories, and 
routine use. SBA 30 has expanded the scope of its system of records 
with additional applications serving a unique purpose for carrying out 
the mission of the SBA Office of Government Contracting and Business 
Development. SBA 30 collects personal, business, veteran status, and 
financial information to determine if applicants qualify and if current 
participants certify or are compliant with statutory and regulatory 
requirements for continued eligibility for participation in the 
following government programs: 8(a) Business Development Program, 
Mentor Prot[eacute]g[eacute] Program (MPP) formerly known as All Small 
Mentor Prot[eacute]g[eacute] Program (ASMPP), Women Owned Small 
Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting Program, Historically Underutilized 
Business Zone (HUBZone) Program, Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) 
Program and any future certification programs deemed necessary by 
congress or statute.

DATES: Submit comments on or before February 16, 2023. This revised 
system will be effective upon publication.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this notice by any of the 
following methods:
    Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow 
the instructions for submitting comments.
    Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Submit written comments to: Ms. 
Beatrice Hidalgo, Office of Government Contracting and Business 
Development, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street SW, 
Suite 6300, Washington, DC 20416.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: General questions, please contact Ms. 
Hilary F. Cronin, Office of Government Contracting and Business 
Development, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street SW, 
Suite 6300, Washington, DC 20416 or via email [email protected], 
telephone (202) 205-7055. For Privacy related matters, please contact 
Stephen Kucharski, (Acting) Chief Information Officer/Senior Agency 
Official for Privacy, Office of the Chief Information Officer, U.S. 
Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street SW, Suite 4000, 
Washington, DC 20416 or via email to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as 
amended, embodies fair information practice principles in a statutory 
framework governing the means by which Federal agencies collect, 
maintain, use, and disseminate individuals' personal information. The 
Privacy Act applies to records about individuals that are maintained in 
a ``system of records.'' A system of records is a group of any records 
under the control of a Federal agency from which information is 
retrieved by the name of an individual or by a number, symbol or 
another identifier assigned to the individual. The Privacy Act requires 
each Federal agency to publish in the Federal Register a System of 
Records Notice (SORN) identifying and describing each system of records 
the agency maintains, the purposes for which the Agency uses the 
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the system, the routine 
uses for which the Agency discloses such information outside the 
Agency, and how individuals can exercise their rights related to their 
PII information.

[[Page 2749]]

    The modified Privacy Act system of records for titled, Government 
Contracting and Business Development (GCBD) System, (SBA 30) will be 
used by small business, SBA personnel and overseen by Office of 
Government Contracting and Business Development. SBA 30 collects 
personal, business, and financial information and veteran status to 
determine if applicants are eligible and if current participants are 
compliant with statutory and regulatory requirements for continued 
eligibility for participation in the following government programs: 
8(a) Business Development Program, MPP, WOSB Federal Contracting 
Program, HUBZone Program, and VOSB Federal Contracting Program. 
Multiple SBA IT systems/applications are used to certify the 
participants on an SBA platform.
    Certify.sba.gov is a certification management system used for 
elements of initial certification and continuing eligibility functions 
for the 8(a) Business Development program and for MPP. Its primary 
component is a custom developed application which includes an interface 
for small businesses to manage their eligibility documents and 
applications for various contracting programs, as well as workflows for 
SBA staff.
    WOSB.Certify.sba.gov is a certification management system used for 
elements of initial certification and continuing eligibility functions 
for the WOSB Program. Its primary component is a custom developed 
application which includes an interface for small businesses to manage 
their eligibility documents and applications for various contracting 
programs, as well as workflows for SBA staff. HUBZone Certification 
Tracking System (HCTS) is a certification management system used for 
elements of initial certification and continuing eligibility for the 
HUBZone program. veterans.certify.sba.gov is a certification management 
system used for elements of initial application and continuing 
eligibility functions for the VOSB program. Its primary component is a 
custom developed application which includes an interface for small 
businesses to manage their eligibility documents and applications for 
various contracting programs, as well as workflows for SBA staff. To be 
eligible for certification in SBA's Veteran Small Business 
Certification Program, an applicant's small business must be owned and 
controlled by one or more qualifying veterans. A ``qualifying veteran'' 
is a veteran as defined by 38 U.S.C. 101(2) or a service-disabled 
veteran. The modification of SBA 30 will not have any undue impact on 
the privacy of individuals and its use is compatible with collection.
    System Name and Number: Government Contracting and Business 
Development System, SBA 30.
    System Classification: Unclassified.
    System Location: SBA Headquarters, 409 3rd Street SW, Washington, 
DC 20416.
    System Manager(s): Hilary F. Cronin, Office of Government 
Contracting and Business Development, U.S. Small Business 
Administration, 409 3rd Street SW, Suite 6300, Washington, DC 20416.
    Authority for Maintenance of the System: 15 U.S.C. 636 (j); 15 
U.S.C. 637; 15 U.S.C. 657a(a); Public Law 105-13, 111 Stat. 26275 (15 
U.S.C. 631); 13 CFR 125.9 and Section 862 of the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law 116-283, 134 Stat. 
3388 (January 1, 2021) (NDAA 2021), amended 38 U.S.C. 8127.
    Purposes of the System: To collect personal, business, and 
financial information used to determine eligibility of applicants and 
current participants in the Agency's certification program to include 
but not limited to: 8(a) Business Development Program, Mentor 
Prot[eacute]g[eacute] Program (MPP) formerly known as All Small Mentor 
Prot[eacute]g[eacute] Program (ASMPP), Women-Owned Small Business 
(WOSB) Federal Contracting Program, Historically Underutilized Business 
Zone (HUBZone) Program and Veteran Owned Small Business Program.
    Categories of Individuals Covered by the System: Applicants and 
program participants in SBA's 8(a) Business Development program, Mentor 
Prot[eacute]g[eacute] Program, WOSB Federal Contracting Program, 
HUBZone Program, and VOSB Federal Contracting Program.
    Categories of Records in the System: Personal, business, veteran 
status and financial information.
    Record Source Categories: Small business applicants or participants 
in the 8(a) Business Development program, Mentor Prot[eacute]g[eacute] 
Program (formerly known as All Small Mentor Prot[eacute]g[eacute] 
Program (ASMPP), HUBZone Program, WOSB Federal Contracting Program, and 
VOSB Federal Contracting Program
    Routine Uses of Records Maintained in the System, Including 
Categories of Users and Purposes of Such Uses: In addition to those 
disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) of the Privacy 
Act, all or a portion of the information contained in this system may 
be disclosed to authorized entities, as is determined to be relevant 
and necessary, outside SBA as a routine use pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 
552a(b)(3) as follows:
    A. To the Department of Justice (DOJ), including offices of the U.S 
Attorneys, or other Federal agency conducting litigation or in 
proceedings before any court, adjudicative, or administrative body, 
when it is deemed by the SBA to be relevant and necessary to the 
litigation or the SBA has an interest in such litigation when any of 
the following are a party to the litigation or have an interest in the 
litigation: (1) Any employee or former employee of the SBA in his or 
her official capacity; (2) Any employee or former employee of the SBA 
in his or her individual capacity when DOJ or SBA has agreed to 
represent the employee or a party to the litigation or have an interest 
in the litigation; or (3) The United States or any agency thereof.
    B. To a Congressional office from the record of an individual in 
response to an inquiry from that Congressional office made at the 
request of the individual. The member's access rights are no greater 
than those of the individual.
    C. To the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) or 
General Services Administration (GSA) pursuant to records management 
inspections being conducted under the authority of 44 U.S.C. 2904 and 
2906.
    D. To an agency or organization, including the SBA's Office of 
Inspector General, for the purpose of performing audit or oversight 
operations as authorized by law, but only such information as is 
necessary and relevant to such audit or oversight function.
    E. To appropriate agencies, entities, and persons when (1) SBA 
suspects or has confirmed that there has been a breach of the system of 
records, (2) SBA has determined that as a result of the suspected or 
confirmed breach there is a risk of harm to individuals, SBA (including 
its information systems, programs, and operations), the Federal 
Government, or national security; and (3) the disclosure made to such 
agencies, entities, and persons is reasonably necessary to assist in 
connection with SBA's efforts to respond to the suspected or confirmed 
breach or to prevent, minimize, or remedy such harm.
    F. To another Federal agency or Federal entity, when SBA determines 
that information from this system of records is reasonably necessary to 
assist the recipient agency or entity in (1) responding to a suspected 
or confirmed breach or (2) preventing, minimizing, or remedying the 
risk of harm to individuals, the recipient agency or entity (including 
its information systems, programs, and operations), the Federal 
Government, or national

[[Page 2750]]

security, resulting from a suspected or confirmed breach.
    G. To another agency or agent of a Government jurisdiction within 
or under the control of the U.S., lawfully engaged in national security 
or homeland defense when disclosure is undertaken for intelligence, 
counterintelligence activities (as defined by 50 U.S.C. 3003(3)), 
counterterrorism, homeland security, or related law enforcement 
purposes, as authorized by U.S. law or Executive Order.
    H. To SBA contractors, grantees, volunteers, interns, and experts 
who have been engaged by SBA to assist in the performance and 
performance improvement of a servicerelated to this system of records 
and who need access to the records to perform this activity. Recipients 
of these records shall be required to comply with the requirements of 
the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552a.
    Policies and Practices for Storage of Records: Information is 
stored electronically and is protected through the implementation of 
multi-factor access controls, user permissions, event logging, and 
monitoring. External media are further protected using encryption.
    Policies and Practices for Retrieval of Records: Records are 
retrieved by name of individual, business name, and Unique Entity 
Identifier (UEI).
    Policies and Practices for Retention and Disposal of Records: 
Records are maintained in accordance with latest edition SBA Standard 
Operating Procedure (SOP) series 00 41, schedules Records Management 
Records 4.1 and Agency Accountability Records 5.7. Records maintained 
as part of the General Records Schedules (GRS) are disposed of in 
accordance with applicable SBA policies.
    Administrative, Technical, and Physical Safeguards: Access and use 
are limited to persons with official need to know. Users are evaluated 
on a recurring basis to ensure need-to-know still exists. Safeguards 
are implemented in accordance with the Federal Information Security 
Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) and are evaluated on a recurring 
basis to ensure desired operation.
    Record Access Procedures: Individuals wishing to request access to 
records about them should submit a Privacy Act request to the SBA 
Chief, Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Office, U.S. Small 
Business Administration, 409 Third St. SW, Eighth Floor, Washington, DC 
20416 or [email protected]. Individuals must provide their full name, 
mailing address, personal email address, telephone number, and a 
detailed description of the records being requested. Individuals 
requesting access must also follow SBA's Privacy Act regulations 
regarding verification of identity and access to records (13 CFR part 
102 subpart B).
    Contesting Record Procedures: Individuals wishing to contest 
information contained in records about them should submit a Privacy Act 
request to the SBA Chief, Freedom of Information and Privacy Act 
Office, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 Third St. SW, Eighth 
Floor, Washington, DC 20416 or [email protected]. Individuals must provide 
their full name, mailing address, personal email address, telephone 
number, and a detailed description of the records being requested. 
Requesting individuals must follow SBA's Privacy Act regulations 
regarding verification of identity and access to records (13 CFR part 
102 subpart B).
    Notification Procedures: Individuals may make record inquiries in 
person or in writing to the Systems Manager through the SBA Chief, 
Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Office, U.S. Small Business 
Administration, 409 Third St. SW, Eighth Floor, Washington, DC 20416 or 
[email protected].
    Exemptions Promulgated for the System: None.
    History: [FR Doc. 2004-54823, Vol. 69, No. 175]; and [FR Doc. 2021-
07363, Vol. 86, No. 68]

Hilary Cronin,
Director of Technology Solutions, Office of Government Contracting and 
Business Development.
[FR Doc. 2023-00623 Filed 1-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8026-09-P