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Feds failing Y2K preparation

09/21 By Bill Burke/BusinessToday staff


Whenever I brought home a disappointing report card, I wasn't allowed to watch TV until the next semester.

And despite having missed most of Battlestar Galactica, the waning years of Welcome Back Kotter and all of Hello Larry, I think I turned out to be a somewhat well adjusted adult. However, I'm not sure it would have the same affect if we took TV away from the Federal Government. After looking over the Fed's most recent Year 2000 report card, it's safe to say that the Clinton tapes would go unseen by most Federal agencies.

The Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology has come out with its latest ranking of Federal agencies' readiness facing the Year 2000 computer problem.

With less than 500 days until the Millennium, we are in deep trouble. On the bright side, however, there are a few government agencies that are ready for Y2K, according to the Feds.

On the down side, it's led by the Social Security Administration, which garnered an "A." According to the GMIT, the Social Security Administration had 99 percent of its mission critical systems brought into compliance by last March. That's great. I'll sleep well knowing a portion of my check will continue to be taken -- a portion that I will never see again - well into the next century.

Am I bitter? Maybe. But my bitterness is soothed somewhat by knowing that the Small Business Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Veterans affairs are all doing fairly well in their Y2K work.

Appropriately enough, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA) ranked a "B-" as of Sept. 1, with 82 percent of its mission critical systems ready for the Millennium Bug by last spring. But that's OK, there is a little time left. I think that if I were a government agency, I'd hang out with FEMA.

But that's where the good news ends. NASA only got a "C+." That's NASA. They send people hurtling into space. I wouldn't feel too comfortable strapped-in to a shuttle knowing that NASA's asleep at the wheel. And to pile on a bit, NASA's grade dropped from its previous ranking of a "B" last May. There's a point where acting nonplused about the whole issue ends. And that point comes when you learn the Department of Defense got a "D" for its Y2K readiness. Again.

The Department of Defense -- the guys with the guns -- only had 54 percent of its mission critical (stress the word "critical" in this case) systems compliant as of last spring.

At this rate, the defense department will be done with its Y2K work in 2001, according to GMIT.

Well guess what? That's not good enough.

Let me explain the concept of deadlines. You don't miss them. Especially when there are guns and bombs and things that cause death at stake. But that's not the worst of it. Seven government agencies were given "D" ratings, while six failed entirely.

Who's bringing up the rear? The Agency for International Development - which has only 16 percent of its mission critical systems Y2K compliant. Other failures: The Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of State, the Justice Department, and laughably, the Department of Education and the Energy Department - which is ironic because a report released Friday found that electric utilities are in fair shape as far as Y2K compliance goes.