Below is a copy of a report I read the other day. I've read so much stating that the gov. is not ready. Then what the hell is this? Are they still feeding the public with half of the story?

Feds Get 'B-' On Y2K Report Card (06/16/99, 3:42 p.m. ET) By Bruce Caldwell, InformationWeek Federal agencies received an overall grade of B- on Tuesday for Y2K progress in theeighth quarterly report card from Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology.

On average, 94 percent of all critical systems were compliant as of May 14, when agency reports were filed, compared with 79 percent in February. Critical systems remaining in need of Y2K fixes include the Air Traffic Control System and the Department of Health and Human Service's Payment Management System, which annually processes $165 billion in payments and grant programs, such as Medicaid.

Also on Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its ninth quarterly assessment of Y2K progress, also based on agency reports filed last month. Total Y2K spending by the 24 federal agencies from 1996 to 2000 is now estimated at $8.05 billion, up $1.3 billion over the prior quarter largely because of the Department of Defense's use of Y2K contingency funds.

According to the report, 14 agencies now report 100 percent Y2K compliance, while the remaining agencies have 410 mission-critical systems that must be repaired (82 percent), replaced (10 percent), or retired (8 percent).

The OMB also studied progress reports from 46 small and independent agencies, and found that 35 have completed work on critical systems.

-- M Perschall (m.perschall@cwix.com), June 21, 1999

Answers

Oh you forgot to mention that the government got an "A" in usage of vague generalities. And an "A+" on keeping the sheeple happy.

In my opinion, if y2k was such a big concern to them, how come they didn't have a report card like this back in 1990? Why wait until the last six months to spend all these billions of dollars?

This whold idea of giving out letter grades to a monumental software/hardware project sounds like a hell of a catering job to me.

-- (tedjennings@business.net), June 21, 1999.

OMB = Administration = Ko-Skin-em = Shill !!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), June 21, 1999.

M Perschall: Take it for what it's worth. 1) it's self reporting with no third party validation. 2) they scrap mission critical systems to make the numbers look better. 3)They tried once giving a couple Departments an "F" and that didn't fly well. There out'a time as well

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), June 21, 1999.

By the way...Did anyone else notice that this report card is only for 24 Agencies? One of those reports I saw mentioned that only 2 of 43 agencies were compliant. Are those other 19 soooooo bad that they don't even get a grade?

DJ

-- DJ (reality@check.com), June 21, 1999.

Hi Guys,

From what I've read (and I read a lot), the none of the Feds are ready for Y2k.

Sure, maybe 94% of the agencies have finished remediating their mission critical systems, but are they tested? What about the non-mission-critical stuff that constitute over 90% of the computer systems in the federal gov't? There's been no mention of them (and it's a really large number of systems).

So far, IMO, even the worst reports over the past 2 years have had a heavy polly spin on them.

-- Dean -- from (almost) Duh Moines (dtmiller@nevia.net), June 21, 1999.

For some unexplained reason, many agencies now seem to be Y2K ready, but many high-impact federal programs are not...

http://freedom.house.gov/y2k/news/pr990615.asp

"2 out of 43? Unbelievable!"

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 21, 1999.

If you will closely read the story posted by Linkmeister above, you will see that we are dealing with a real "slight of hand" situation with the Fed.gov...

The 94% "compliance" is the agencie's systems

The 2 of 43 refers to "high-impact programs"

The systems that the programs run on are nearly compliant, if we can believe that...but the programs themselves are NOT.

If your "system" is compliant, but your web browser program is not, then you still cannot access the net!!

If your system is compliant, but your food stamp program is not, then you cannot administer the program!!

Check out the news headlines in the majors...they are all carping about the great progress. They don't mention that the programs aren't fixed yet. ((a minor detail))

-- Don (dwegner@cheyenneweb.com), June 21, 1999.

You've gotta remember that the Feds are grading on a curve we could only dream of when we were getting grades. I mean that agencies publicly stating that they are on a schedule to finish their Y2K work one or two years into the next century are getting B- or C+ grades.

And these are *critical systems*, these agencies' lifeblood machines, that they're talking about being late with. Not some "we can live without it", back office, spare desktop PC used only for tracking employee dues for the office coffee fund.

To any individual or private company, missing a "no misses allowed" deadline with their core business systems is a failure, plain and simple. If they can't function they're bankrupt and gone just like dust with the wind.

To the Feds, the same sorry situation is hailed as a "pretty decent grade". It's like the crew of the Titanic self-congratulating each other on how spiffy they look in their crisp, White Star Lines uniforms and how shiny and polished their shoes are. No matter that they're standing on a deck that's got rising water which is lapping at the soles of their shoes.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), June 22, 1999.