Cohen calls DoD's Y2K progress 'insufficient'

Defense Secretary William Cohen has issued an ultimatum to Defense Department managers: Pick up the pace on year 2000 fixes or face a moratorium on any computer systems work not related to Y2K conversion.

In an Aug. 7 letter to DoD executives, Cohen said the department is not tackling the millennium bug with enough force.

"DoD is making insufficient progress in its efforts to solve its Y2K computer problem," Cohen wrote, announcing a series of additional reporting requirements and funding limitations with which DoD components will have to comply by Oct. 1. "We will take a hard look at progress in November and December. If we are still lagging behind, all further modifications to software, except those needed for Y2K remediation, will be prohibited after January 1, 1999."

Cohen's directive also included the following orders:

• The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is to develop a Y2K evaluation program by Oct. 1. In addition, Unified Commanders-in-Chief must assess Y2K progress within their commands and subordinate components of their commands every quarter.
• By Sept. 15, the U.S. Strategic Command, working with other offices, must provide Cohen with a detailed report on the Y2K status of the nation's nuclear systems.
• By Oct. 1, every DoD component must ensure that the status of mission-critical systems is accurately reported in the DoD Y2K database, which the Pentagon is using to track departmentwide progress.
• Components must cut off funding by Oct. 1 to any mission-critical system for which managers have not formally coordinated with owners of other systems that interface with their system. Funding will also be cut off to any information technology contract that does not contain Y2K requirements.

In June, the Pentagon released a list of 30 mission-critical systems that would not be Y2K-compliant by the Clinton administration's March 31, 1999 deadline. Some systems, including the Army's Enhanced Tactical Combat Service Support Computer System and the Defense Attache Worldwide Network, won't be fixed until December 1999. No completion date has been set for the much-troubled Army Standard Installation/Division Personnel System.

Next week the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee will release its quarterly grades on agencies' progress on the Y2K problem. In the last round of grades, which were issued June 2, the subcommittee gave the Pentagon a "D."