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Government Gets Failing Grades on Year 2000 Report Card

Many of the 24 agencies examined flunk Millennium bug testing, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy and Transportation.

By Nancy Weil, PCWorld   

Just 8 of 24 departments or agencies scored above average, with only four earning an A. Consequences of the slipshod approach to preparing information systems to handle dates past December 31, 1999, could be serious disruptions in the nation%squots air traffic and problems with Medicare, the country%squots federally subsidized health-care system for the elderly, according to U.S. Representative Stephen Horn of California, chair of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology.

Many software programs have been written to read dates as two digits, and it is believed that those systems will interpret the %dquot00%dquot in %dquot2000%dquot as %dquot1900%dquot and subsequently fail to make correct calculations. Businesses and governments worldwide are scrambling to correct the problem and bring systems into compliance. The U.S. Congress has conducted a variety of hearings on the topic, with much attention focused on compliance by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is behind in its efforts and was included in the U.S. Department of Transportation%squots failing group.

%dquotUnderlying this dismal overall grade is a disturbing slow-down in the government%squots rate of progress,%dquot Horn said in a written statement. %dquotFor the quarter ending February 15, the government brought mission-critical systems into compliance at a rate of 9.4 percent. For the quarter that ended May 15, the rate of progress slowed to 7.9 percent. This would be discouraging in any context. Less than a year before the March 1999 [government] deadline for Y2K repairs, a reduction in productivity is deeply troubling. This trend must be reversed.%dquot

%dquotWithout dramatic improvements, the nation%squots air traffic could face serious disruptions for an extended period after December 31, 1999,%dquot said Horn.

U.S. President Bill Clinton %dquotmust use the bully pulpit and inform the people of this nation,%dquot Horn said, urging Clinton to declare the year 2000 issue a priority.

Some agencies and departments do not expect to finish dealing with year 2000 issues until years after problems are expected to arise. The Agency for International Development, for instance, doesn%squott anticipate being finished until 2019; the State Department predicts it will be done in 2005, followed a year later by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The report considered how the departments and agencies are doing with mission-critical systems. Those expecting to finish by March 31, 1999, earned a base grade of A. Those estimating completion in 2000 or 2001 dropped to a base grade of C, while those targeting 2002 scored a D, and anything beyond that was considered failing.

%dquotIf there was such a thing as an F-minus, AID clearly deserves it for its current progress--hopefully, they will improve next quarter,%dquot the subcommittee said in a written statement explaining how grades were assigned. Likewise, the Department of Energy also deserves the same awful grade, according to the report.

Base grades were affected by four additional factors--contingency plans, telecommunications systems, embedded systems, and external data exchange.

Both the subcommittee and the General Accounting Office, an independent government watchdog group, %dquotinsist that agencies prepare contingency plans that assume systems failures and still maintain basic operations,%dquot the report said.

The report also said that government agencies and departments must test telecommunications, embedded systems, and data exchanges, emphasizing the transfer of data to external systems. The latter issue has increasingly been pushed to the fore as businesses and governments step up year 2000 plans.

%dquotIt is unfortunately easy for external data that is not Y2K compliant to corrupt another computer system that is Y2K compliant,%dquot the report said.

Horn credited the Social Security Administration for taking the lead and serving as a model for other agencies, helping some to get up to speed. But U.S. residents who receive payments from SSA shouldn%squott count on their checks being in the mail.

%dquotSocial Security checks are actually issued by the Treasury Department%squots Financial Management Service. This is a potential bottleneck of dramatic proportions,%dquot Horn said, noting that the U.S. Treasury Department %dquotearned a C this quarter, held back by a dismal performance by FMS. Despite urgent calls for progress in March, FMS%squots accomplishments over the last three months have been far from reassuring. We must take action on this urgent problem.%dquot

But he also cautioned against panic with the January 1, 2000, deadline approaching. %dquotWe must not become discouraged by the work that still remains. This is the time to focus, redouble our efforts, and to move aggressively forward.%dquot

Here are the grades U.S. departments and agencies earned:

• A+: Social Security Administration

• A-: General Services Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Science Foundation

• B: Department of Commerce, Small Business Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

• C: Departments of Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, Labor and Veterans Affairs

• C-: Office of Personnel Management, Department of the Interior

• D: Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Justice, and Education

• F: Environmental Protection Agency; departments of State, Health and Human Services, Energy and Transportation; Agency for International Development