Auditors say DoD needs to look at the big Y2K picture

The Defense Department has leapt into action on ridding individual defense systems of the millennium bug, but is still missing the big picture when it comes to Y2K readiness, federal auditors testified at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Both the General Accounting Office and the DoD Office of the Inspector General indicated that DoD's critical operations will be Y2K-compliant by the year 2000, but expressed concerns about larger issues of Y2K readiness, such as end-to-end systems testing, co-dependent computer systems and outside organizations that DoD relies on.

Jack L. Brock, director of governmentwide and defense information systems at GAO, said DoD needs to take extra precautions to make sure its critical systems will work. "It's like going to a party, and you risk your pants falling down," he said. "You not only want to wear a belt, but suspenders as well."

Brock said DoD needs to assess issues like its reliance on power companies for electricity and its dependence on vendors to accomplish critical missions. "Once these assessments are complete, top management can develop an overall perspective of readiness," he said.

Robert J. Lieberman, assistant inspector general for auditing at DoD, agreed. The Pentagon is behind schedule on Y2K testing largely because of a widespread lack of awareness, Lieberman said. "We cannot overemphasize the need for robust in-depth testing," he said. "In our view, it is the most daunting of the remaining Y2K challenges."

Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, held the hearing to clarify discrepancies in reports on DoD's Y2K readiness. A DoD report last December claimed that 81 percent of the Pentagon's mission-critical systems were compliant. But two months later DoD reported only 72 percent of the same systems were compliant.

Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre attributed the difference to "a useless reporting requirement that isn't doing anybody any good." Instead of relying on two-month-old reports for information, Hamre said, committee members should sit in on DoD's monthly Y2K meetings.

In a briefing Monday, Hamre reported that 83 percent of DoD mission-critical systems have been fixed. But that figure represents only individual systems, not end-to-end capabilities. Nonetheless, the nation's war fighters will be ready to protect and defend the United States come January 1, 2000, Hamre said at Tuesday's hearing. He also assured committee members that nuclear command-and-control systems will be Y2K compliant.

"There is no risk that DoD can't manage and control its nuclear systems," Hamre said.

DoD has responded to concerns about other nations with nuclear capabilities by increasing its international outreach efforts. The Pentagon is planning to invite nations with nuclear capabilities to help staff a joint early warning center to ensure that no false-alarm nuclear launches occur as a result of the Y2K bug.

Horn issued his seventh report card on Y2K readiness throughout the federal government on February 22. The Defense department received a C- grade, up from the previous quarter's D-.