Defense Computers: Improvements to DOD Systems Inventory Needed for Year 2000 Effort
AIMD-97-112
Published: Aug 13, 1997. Publicly Released: Aug 13, 1997.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to improve the Defense Integration Support Tools (DIST) database, which serves as the DOD inventory of automated information systems and is intended to be used as a tool to help DOD components in addressing year 2000 date problems.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Office of the Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence | In order to ensure that DIST can be effectively used for year 2000 efforts, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence should direct his staff assigned to oversee implementation of the DOD Year 2000 Plan and the Director of DISA to ensure that all duplicate, inactive, and incomplete entries be identified and investigated. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD responded to the report by concurring with this recommendation and stating that this action would be completed by late 1997. To implement the recommendation, Defense instituted a new inventory system to track year 2000 information. This new inventory system was operational on December 1998.
|
| Office of the Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence | In order to ensure that DIST can be effectively used for year 2000 efforts, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence should direct his staff assigned to oversee implementation of the DOD Year 2000 Plan and the Director of DISA to expedite development and implementation of the purging methodology. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD responded to the report by concurring with this recommendation and indicated that this action would be completed by late 1997. In June 1998, Defense instituted a new inventory system to track year 2000 information, and, as of December 1998, DOD no longer used the DIST for Department-wide inventory information. However, Defense Officials within the Office of the Secretary of Defense were assigned to specifically oversee their business area's implementation of this recommendation.
|
| Office of the Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence | In order to ensure that DIST can be effectively used for year 2000 efforts, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence should direct his staff assigned to oversee implementation of the DOD Year 2000 Plan and the Director of DISA to expand year 2000 information included in DIST for individual systems to include key program activity schedules that managers of interfacing systems need to ensure that their system interfaces are maintained during the renovation phase. This expansion should also include information that will enable the Office of the Secretary of Defense, components, and organizational-level year 2000 program officials to quickly identify schedule delays, promptly correct them, and if necessary, trigger contingency plans. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD responded to the report by concurring with this recommendation and indicated that this action would be completed by late 1997. In June 1998, Defense instituted a new inventory system to track year 2000 information, and, as of December 1998, DOD no longer used the DIST for Department-wide inventory information. Additionally, senior Defense officials who were assigned specific business area responsibility to implement our recommendations in their business areas also were assigned to the interface and interoperability council for Y2K. Accordingly, this recommendation was fully implemented in July 1998.
|
| Defense Information Systems Agency | After the new criteria for reporting information systems are applied by system managers, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence staff, and the Director of DISA, in conjunction with the services and components, should act to ensure that the DIST database is kept up-to-date and accurate, identify instances of noncompliance so that responsible command organizations can take corrective actions, and move forward with any other initiatives needed to make DIST an effective management tool. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD responded to the report by concurring with this recommendation and indicated that this action would be completed by late 1997. In June 1998, Defense instituted a new inventory system to track year 2000 information, and, as of December 1998, DOD no longer used the DIST for Department-wide inventory information.
|
| Office of the Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence | After the new criteria for reporting information systems are applied by system managers, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence staff, and the Director of DISA, in conjunction with the services and components, should act to ensure that the DIST database is kept up-to-date and accurate, identify instances of noncompliance so that responsible command organizations can take corrective actions, and move forward with any other initiatives needed to make DIST an effective management tool. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD responded to the report by concurring with this recommendation and indicated that this action would be completed by late 1997. In June 1998, Defense instituted a new inventory system to track year 2000 information, and, as of December 1998, DOD no longer used the DIST for Department-wide inventory information. Accordingly, this recommendation was implemented in July 1998.
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Topics
Data integrityInformation resources managementManagement information systemsStrategic information systems planningSystems conversionsY2KDatabasesDatabase management systemsInventoryInformation systems