Year 2000 Computing Challenge

Because of the urgent nature of the Year 2000 computer crisis and the potentially devastating impact it could have on government operations, GAO has included the Year 2000 problem on its list of high-risk areas within the federal government. GAO has issued more than 130 reports and congressional testimony on the Year 2000 readiness of a wide range of federal agencies. GAO has also issued guidance to help organizations successfully address the issue. This testimony highlights the years 2000 risks facing the nation, discusses the federal government's progress and challenges that remain in correcting its systems, identifies state and local government Year 2000 issues, and provides an overview of available information on the readiness of key public infrastructure and economic sectors.

GAO noted that: (1) the public faces the risk that critical services provided by the government and the private sector could be severely disrupted by the year 2000 computing problem; (2) to meet this challenge and monitor individual agency efforts, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed the major departments and agencies to submit quarterly reports on their progress; (3) the federal government's most recent reports show improvement in addressing the year 2000 problem; (4) while much work remains, the federal government has significantly increased its percentage of mission-critical systems that are reported to be year 2000 compliant; (5) while this progress is notable, OMB reported that 10 agencies have mission-critical systems that were not yet compliant; (6) while the overall year 2000 readiness of the government has improved, GAO's reviews of agency year 2000 programs have found uneven progress; (7) some agencies had made good progress while other agencies were significantly behind schedule but had taken actions to improve their readiness; (8) on March 31, 1999, OMB and the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion announced that one of the key priorities that federal agencies will be pursuing during the rest of 1999 will be cooperative end-to-end testing to demonstrate the year 2000 readiness of federal programs with states and other partners; (9) on January 26, 1999, OMB called on federal agencies to identify and report on high-level core business functions that are to be addressed in their business and continuity plans; (10) according to an OMB official, OMB has received plans from the 24 major agencies and it will report on the plans' status in its next quarterly report; (11) according to information on state year 2000 activities reported to the National Association of State Information Resource Executives as of August 3, 1999, states reported having thousands of mission-critical systems; (12) with respect to completing the implementation phase for these systems: (a) 2 states reported that they had completed between 25 and 49 percent; (b) 6 states reported completing between 50 and 74 percent; and (c) 38 states reported completing 75 percent or more; (13) beyond the risks faced by federal, state, and local governments, the year 2000 also poses a serious challenge to the public infrastructure, key economic sectors, and to other countries; and (14) the Council reported that important national systems will make a successful transition to the year 2000 but that much work remains to be done.