Y2K Efforts Get Low Grades

Congress' year 2000 overseer said Wednesday that most federal computer systems will likely malfunction at the turn of the century, as agencies scramble to figure out which systems must be fixed and which can be sacrificed.

Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif., issued low grades to the government's chief information officers, failing five agencies on their year 2000 conversion efforts and giving the government as a whole a D-.

"A large number of federal computer systems will simply not be prepared for the date change on Dec. 31, 1999," Horn said. "The goal now is to make certain that the most important systems at the most important agencies can function in the new century."

But agencies are having trouble figuring out which systems must be fixed.

In August, the Defense Department reported to the Office of Management and Budget that it had 3,695 "mission-critical" computer systems that need to be fixed by the year 2000 to support core department functions. By last month, that number had dropped to 2,915. The 21 percent improvement did not happen because DoD personnel had made 780 systems year 2000-compliant, however. Instead, systems have simply been reclassified as non-mission critical.

DoD is not alone, however; civilian agencies have reclassified 470 systems as non-mission critical since August. Agencies' problems figuring out which systems they should fix, let alone actually fixing them, has left Horn's staff feeling anxious.

"We're becoming more and more disturbed about" the reclassifications, said a staff member on Horn's Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology. "It's a bit suspicious."

The problem, says Kathleen M. Adams, assistant deputy commissioner for systems at the Social Security Administration and chair of the governmentwide CIO Council Subcommittee on Year 2000, is "when people say 'mission critical system,' every agency defines that a little bit differently." SSA, which received an A grade for its year 2000 progress, defines them as systems that "support core business processes."

A Defense Department inspector general report released late last month noted that components within the department are using different definitions of mission-critical. The report, which analyzed data from August, said six DoD components classified 100 percent of their systems as mission critical, while three components said less than 10 percent of their systems had to be fixed by Jan. 1, 2000.

The report said Pentagon officials were working to improve year 2000 policy across the department.

Some agencies are reclassifying their systems because definitions are changing. Other agencies may be developing back-up patchwork plans that allow them to shift certain systems to non-essential status.

Adams noted that the number of systems an agency has changes frequently, as new systems come online and old systems are phased out.

Adams also said that agencies should now be working on back-up plans for systems that will not be fixed by the century change.

"Every organization needs to have a contingency plan for what they can do if there are failures so they can continue to conduct business," Adams said.

Horn's report cards for agencies said 15 of 24 agencies will not have their computers ready on time. The Office of Management and Budget will release its quarterly report on agencies' efforts by the end of the month.

Horn's Grades for Agencies' Year 2000 Efforts