It's long, authoritative and quite depressing. Here's a hotlink to:

Statement By
Joel Willemssen
Director, Civil Agengies Information Systems
Accounting And Information Management Division
U.S. General Accounting Office
Before The Subcommittee On Government Management,
Information, And Tehcnology Of The
Committee On Government Reform And Oversight
U.S. House Of Representatives
January 20, 1999

If you haven't read it yet, you really should. If this doesn't convince you that the problem is real and that both personal and community preparation is prudent, then nothing will.

(This testimony was mentioned in an earlier thread but I wanted to make sure a hotlink was easily available.)

-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), January 25, 1999

Answers

Yes, I second Arnie. I printed it out & read it at dinner last night; it's very impressive.

-- Drew Parkhill/CBN News (y2k@cbn.org), January 25, 1999.

I hope the computer scientist who spelled "tehcnology" is not typical of the government remediation team. (To be stressed: Arnie Rimmer's hot link accurately recreates the government's title.)

Also, I found the testimony by Lawrence K. Gershwin to the same subcommittee to be even more sobering. The cite is in links below, but I believe this is it: http://www.house.gov/reform/gmit/hearings/testimony/9901201g.htm

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), January 25, 1999.

Arnie, Thanks for the link. Great read! Yes, it does present a very grim picture as to the state of things. I'm not surprised. Will make a copy and send to my DGI sister. Maybe it will open her eyes.

-- shivermetimbers (zerodegrees@brrrr.com), January 25, 1999.

Corrected link to the Lawrence Gershwin testimony. Puddin's link has a minor (albeit fatal) typo. The numeral '1 as shown above should be a lower case 'L'. http://www.house.gov/reform/gmit/hearings/testimony/990120lg.htm
Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), January 25, 1999.

The report was informative.....yes truthful...........yes factual...........yes sobering........yes!!!!!!

-- Abe Voegtle (qwiksnd6@aol.com), January 25, 1999.

Did you note, under the section ...

Additional Actions That Could Be Considered By the Presidents Council on Key Sectors

... If the current approach of using associations to voluntarily collect information does not yield the necessary information, the Council may wish to consider whether legislative remedies (such as requiring disclosure of Year 2000 readiness data) should be proposed.

To encourage the reporting of more complete information, the Council should consider requesting that the national associations publicly disclose, at a minimum, those companies that have responded to surveys. ...

Does this mean what I think it means?

That ... THE GOVERNMENTS Y2K INDUSTRY ASSESSMENT IS BASED ON INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION RESPONSES?? Rather than directly from companies themselves?

This, is NOT good news.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 25, 1999.

Dan, Thanks for the correction. I have to plead not quilty as on my machine the two characters are indistinguishable. I guess I'll have to go pull up that thread and learn how to hot link these things.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), January 26, 1999.