Case Studies

GOVERNMENT: DOL-EFAST2

Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Service

Background

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the Department of Labor (DOL) required professional technical and administrative support services for its IT systems and applications. EBSA needs these services, in particular, to monitor, evaluate, and oversee its private-sector ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST) vendor(s) in the processing, data distribution, and archiving of Form 5500 Series employee benefit plan filings. EFAST was developed to support EBSA and its partnering agencies, the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, in their statutory and regulatory requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

What DuraBante Did

• Provided professional IV&V services supportive of EBSA’s management of the EFAST program and related systems.
• Provided analysis of Form 5500 Series data processing for the purpose of maintaining and increasing the overall responsiveness, accuracy, and effectiveness of the system and all related program and administrative functions.
• Provided formal written analyses of the EFAST/EBSA systems to the government at the government’s request.
• Provided expertise and analysis to define technical requirements and statements of work for efforts and proposed changes to the existing systems/applications.
• Reviewed EBSA security documentation for compliance with Federal or DOL security standards, including those outlined in NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-53, Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems, Annex 2: Minimum Security Controls, Moderate Baseline, the DOL Computer Security Handbook (CSH), and related policies.