Skip to main content

Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Actions Needed on Electronic Data Exchanges

AIMD-98-124 Published: Jul 01, 1998. Publicly Released: Jul 31, 1998.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on actions taken to address year 2000 issues for electronic data exchanges, focusing on the: (1) key actions taken to date to address electronic data exchanges among federal, state, and local governments; (2) actions the federal government has taken to minimize the adverse economic impact of non-compliant year 2000 data from other countries' information systems corrupting critical functions of the United States; and (3) international forums where the worldwide economic implications of this issue have been or could be addressed.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, in consultation with the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, should issue the necessary guidance to require federal agencies to establish schedules for testing and implementing new exchange formats prior to the March 1999 deadline for completing all data exchange corrections; such schedules may include national test days that could be used for end-to-end testing of critical business processes and associated data exchanges affecting federal, state, and local governments.
Closed – Implemented
OMB said that it had asked the CIO Council to establish a directory of federal exchanges with states and develop requirements for reporting the status of the exchanges. Although OMB stated that national test days for end-to-end testing would be impractical, in 1999 it instructed agencies to conduct end-to-end testing for data exchanges for "high impact" programs. In March 1999, OMB designated federal programs that have a high impact on the public and instructed agencies to develop plans to ensure that the programs operate effectively, including public events to demonstrate Year 2000 readiness. Many of the programs rely on partners such as state and local governments, and private-sector organizations; therefore, OMB specified that the plans might include testing of data exchanges across partners. In August 1999, OMB further clarified the instructions by saying that federal agencies should take the lead in coordinating the end-to-end testing and demonstrating that programs will work.
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, in consultation with the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, should issue the necessary guidance to require federal agencies to notify exchange partners of the implications to the agency and the exchange partners if they do not make date conversion corrections in time to meet the federal schedule for implementing and testing year 2000 compliant data exchange processes.
Closed – Not Implemented
In its comments on the draft report, OMB did not agree with this recommendation. OMB stated that exchange partners are well aware of the implications of failing to make date conversions.
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, in consultation with the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, should issue the necessary guidance to require federal agencies to give priority to installing the filters necessary to prevent the corruption of mission-critical systems from data exchanges with non-compliant systems.
Closed – Implemented
In April 1998, after GAO provided OMB a draft of this report, OMB instructed federal agencies to develop continuity of business plans using GAO's business continuity and contingency planning guide. GAO's business continuity and contingency planning guide specifies that organizations should install the filters necessary to prevent the corruption of mission-critical systems from data exchanges with non-compliant systems.
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, in consultation with the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, should issue the necessary guidance to require federal agencies to develop and implement, as part of their overall business continuity and contingency planning efforts, specific provisions for the data exchanges that may fail, including the approaches to be used to mitigate operational problems if their partners do not make date conversion corrections when needed.
Closed – Implemented
In April 1998, after GAO provided OMB a draft of this report, OMB instructed federal agencies to develop continuity of business plans using GAO's business continuity and contingency planning guide. GAO's business continuity and contingency planning guide specifies that organizations should develop and implement, as part of their overall business continuity and contingency planning efforts, specific provisions for the data exchanges that may fail, including the approaches to be used to mitigate operational problems if their partners do not make date conversion corrections when needed.
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, in consultation with the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, should issue the necessary guidance to require federal agencies to report, as part of their regular year 2000 status reports, their status in completing key steps for data exchanges, such as the percent of exchanges that have been inventoried, the percent of exchanges that have been assessed, the percent of exchanges that have agreements with exchange partners, the percent of exchanges that have been scheduled for testing and implementation, and the percent of exchanges that have completed testing and implementation.
Closed – Implemented
In July 1998, OMB instructed federal agencies to include in their quarterly Year 2000 status reports descriptions of: (1) the method for ensuring that data exchange partners are contacted; and (2) the progress on making data exchanges compliant. OMB had placed particular emphasis of data exchanges with states and, as stated for the first recommendation above, asked the CIO Council to establish a directory of federal exchanges with states and develop requirements for reporting the status of the exchanges.
Office of Management and Budget The Director, OMB, should ensure that the federal Chief Information Officer Council: (1) identifies the areas in which adequate forums on year 2000 issues are not available for U.S. international trade partners; and (2) develops an approach to promote year 2000 compliance activities by these trading partners.
Closed – Implemented
In its comments on the draft report, OMB said that the CIO Council would not be the right place to begin addressing these problems. Instead, The President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion took the lead in establishing forums to address Year 2000 problems. The President's Council established working groups to focus on 27 critical sectors, including international communication, international relations, and international trade. The working groups' efforts were designed to promote sharing of information and increase the level of activities on the Year 2000 problem. The Council also worked with the United Nations to organize meetings of national Y2K coordinators from around the world to address cross-border issues. In addition, the Council is supporting the International Y2K Cooperation Center, sponsored by the World Bank, that plans international initiatives in areas such as telecommunications and transportation.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Contingency plansElectronic data interchangeInformation resources managementInteragency relationsInternational cooperationSoftware verification and validationStrategic information systems planningSystems compatibilitySystems conversionsY2K