OPM says pay and benefits systems are Y2K-ready

Worried that your life insurance, health insurance or retirement payments will be affected by the year 2000 computer problem?

Rest easy, the Office of Personnel Management said Wednesday, your benefits are safe from the Y2K bug.

"The Office of Personnel Management is Y2K O.K.," OPM Director Janice Lachance said Wednesday at OPM headquarters in Washington. "I'm able to guarantee to you that OPM operations will continue well beyond the year 2000."

OPM has completed Y2K fixes on the computer systems that run federal hiring processes, retirement programs, health benefits, life insurance and the Combined Federal Campaign. In all, OPM has 109 "mission-critical" computer systems. All of them are compliant and are undergoing end-to-end testing, Lachance said.

The agency has launched a Y2K public awareness campaign, including television and radio public service announcements, a fax-back line (1-877-750-0177) and a Web site (www.opm.gov/y2k/help).

Janet Barnes, OPM's chief information officer, said minor glitches were caught and fixed during Y2K tests. The ongoing end-to-end testing includes making sure OPM's computers will be able to link up with those of other agencies. For example, the Treasury Department's Financial Management Service processes federal employees' pay checks and disburses checks to retirees.

Most employees receive their checks by direct deposit. Before they get paid, their agencies process their pay checks through 74 finance centers, which forward the information to the Financial Management Service. Of those 74 centers, 45 have completed Y2K conversions, OPM said. Those 45 handle 75 percent of federal employees' pay. The remaining 29 centers will complete Y2K work by the end of summer, said Connie Craig, chief information officer at the Financial Management Service.

Craig said the service has focused much of its energy on ensuring Social Security and veterans' payment systems are Y2K compliant, but federal employees haven't been forgotten.

"We're taking care of ourselves, too," Craig said.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which handles pay checks for military personnel and retirees, as well as Defense civilian employees, has reported that its payment systems are Y2K compliant as well.

OPM is also working with the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program's 285 health insurance providers. Each provider must report to OPM by May 31 on their Y2K compliance. Plans that are not yet compliant must show OPM how they are going to ensure that health services are uninterrupted in the new year.

Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., one of Congress' Y2K watchdogs, attended OPM's year 2000 announcement. She said she was pleased that federal pay and benefits systems will work despite the millennium bug.

"Federal employees, everything's going to be fine," Morella said.