Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) efforts to complete the mandated planning actions for the development of its loan monitoring system.

GAO noted that: (1) as of February 23, 2000, SBA did not complete the required planning actions by its expected milestone of August 1999; (2) SBA officials advised GAO that they expect to complete these actions by March 2000, and then proceed into design and development for the first segment of the proposed loan monitoring system; (3) SBA officials, including the loan monitoring system project manager, acknowledged that the start-up phase of the loan monitoring system project was slower than originally anticipated; and (4) the officials said they are confident that the emphasis on planning and the time devoted to implementing a solid system development methodology with associated standards will pay significant dividends for staying on track as SBA moves forward on the first phase of system acquisition.