OMB, Congress Push Year 2000 Solutions
BR OMB, Congress Push Year 2000 Solutions By Neil Munro Staff Writer The White House's Office of Management and Budget is using its control over the 1998 budget request to force agencies to boost their efforts to solve the impending year 2000 software problem. The increased scrutiny was announced in a new OMB report, titled "Progress on Year 2000 Conversion." The new OMB policy was released Sept. 15, the day a scathing report
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OMB, Congress Push Year 2000 Solutions
By Neil Munro
Staff Writer
The White House's Office of Management and Budget is using its control over the 1998 budget request to force agencies to boost their efforts to solve the impending year 2000 software problem.
The increased scrutiny was announced in a new OMB report, titled "Progress on Year 2000 Conversion."
YEAR 2000 GRADES | Social Security Administration | A- |
General Services Administration | B |
Department of Health and Human Services | B- |
Department of Housing and Urban Development | C |
Department of the Interior | C |
Department of Labor | C |
Department of State | C |
Department of Veterans Affairs | C |
Department of Defense | C- |
Department of Commerce | D |
Department of Justice | D |
Department of Agriculture | D- |
NASA | D- |
Department of the Treasury | D- |
Agency for International Development | F |
Department of Transportation | F |
Department of Education | F |
But OMB's report shows that it is not taking the problem seriously enough, argues Michael Aisenberg, director of strategy and policy for Digital Equipment Corp.'s $1 billion federal sector based in Greenbelt, Md. Solving the year 2000 problem will likely cost the federal government $15 billion, and should be paid for with money taken from lower-priority efforts within the federal agencies, rather than only from information technology programs, he said.
Also, the government should not waste time and money fixing individual software programs, but instead should switch operations over to problem-free commercial technology, he said. "There simply is not enough time to put Band-Aids on all the systems," said Aisenberg.
According to Horn, the agencies' poor grades highlight the need for OMB to pay more attention to management problems within the agencies, rather than only oversee the preparation of the federal budget request to Congress. OMB "is so overwhelmed by the budget ... they are playing patch up" with agencies' management problems such as the year 2000 problem, he said.
The year 2000 grades were part of a report on the agencies' preparedness released by Rep. Steve Horn, R- Calif., chairman of the government management and technology panel of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.
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