With just over two weeks left before the year 2000, the federal government scored near perfect on its Y2K preparedness, an Office of Management and Budget report released Tuesday said.
OMB reported that 99.9 percent of the government's mission critical systems are prepared to pre-empt any problems that could be caused by the year 2000 computer bug. OMB estimates that the Y2K bug will end up costing the government $8.4 billion from 1996 to 2000.
"We have met the challenge of making sure that the federal government can continue to serve the American people as we enter the next century," President Clinton said in a statement. Clinton also thanked federal employees for their work on the Y2K problem. "I want to thank the thousands of dedicated men and women of the federal government, who spent long hours, late nights, and many weekends, getting us ready for the New Year. Many of these same people will be mobilized and working throughout the New Year's weekend. Thanks to them, we have every reason to approach the change-over with confidence about the operations of the federal government."
Y2K czar John Koskinen, during a speech Tuesday, said that most industries are also ready for the big day.
But he warned that the New Year won't be snag-free, saying some problems are expected in health care, education, small businesses, local governments and other countries. He cautioned that some developing countries could slip further into the digital divide-the gap between information haves and have nots-if year 2000 problems compound their existing technological deficiencies.
"If we are truly to move into the 21st century on the wings of electronic commerce, we need to focus our energies on finding ways to bring others along with us," he said.
Koskinen touted bipartisan efforts in Congress and The Year 2000 Information and Readiness and Disclosure Act, passed in 1998, as helping the government and business share information and remove what he called "information bottlenecks" over Y2K in the private sector.
But he added that there are lessons to be learned from Y2K, noting that just because the United States might make it through the date change unscathed does not mean Y2K challenges are over on New Year's Day.
He cautioned that business' top leaders need to get more involved in information technology and should better monitor "sloppy software development and inconsistent or nonexistent standards" in their computer systems. He said Y2K also showed government, business and members on both sides of the aisle can work together to solve problems.
"The challenge for all of us is to build on these partnerships after January 1 as we deal with important challenges to our information technology infrastructure," he said.