Year 2000 Computing Crisis

USDA Needs to Accelerate Time Frames for Completing Contingency Planning Gao ID: AIMD-99-178 May 21, 1999

Under the leadership of its chief information officer and the Year 2000 program office, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is actively developing business continuity and contingency plans to prepare for unforeseen Year 2000-related failures. However, much work remains to be done over the coming months to complete and test these plans. USDA's goal of completing these plans by December 1999 leaves no room for delays or enough time to correct, revise, and retest plans. GAO recommends that USDA advance its time frame to no later than September 30, 1999, and develop priorities for completing and testing plans to ensure that the department's most important business processes are addressed first. USDA's chief information officer agreed with GAO's recommendations.

GAO noted that: (1) under the leadership of the department's chief information officer (CIO) and year 2000 program office, USDA component agencies are actively engaged in developing BCCPs to prepare for unforeseen year 2000-related failures; (2) however, much work remains over the next several months to complete and test USDA's BCCPs; and (3) the department's December 1999 departmentwide goal for completing BCCPs leaves no room for delays or sufficient time for correcting, revising, and retesting plans if necessary.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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