How hard will Y2K bug hit feds?
John Koskinen, the recently appointed chairman of the President's Year 2000 Conversion Council, talks about the Y2K bug's impact on the federal government.
NEWS.COM: What would some of the consequences be if one of these departments
doesn't
make the deadline?
Koskinen: We are a country that is dependent on technology systems. There
will be
some consequences, but I do not see whole systems failing. I think
organizations will have difficulties closing some transactions. It will be
patchy, or geographical, not whole systems.
Many have criticized the government for dragging its heels on this
issue. What do you say to those critics?
At this juncture every agency is taking this problem very seriously. I'm
less concerned with the past and more interested in where do we go from
here. What I hope the council will do is coordinate the efforts going on
now. I'm more concerned with areas where the government doesn't have any
jurisdiction. I hope the council will provide leadership to these areas as
well.
Is the White House considering legislation to make sure agencies meet
the deadline?
Our goal is not to regulate how agencies do this. [The council] wants to
assist them as they go through this process. There may be a need for
specific legislation for particular problems, but not any systemic
legislation. There is some legislation that has been passed to clarify
regulatory powers. A bill was
recently
passed that gives more regulatory authority to the Office of Thrift
Supervision (OTS) and the National Credit
Union Administration (NCUA). That sort of legislation is necessary.
It seems there are at least two different congressional subcommittees
looking into the Year 2000 problem. Would you support establishing a single
committee, tasked specifically with addressing the issue?
A select committee would be helpful, but it's a complicated problem. I
think different institutions and areas have different issues to face, so I
think subcommittees that regulate those are needed to address their
particular needs. But I think anything that would help focus efforts and
give more assistance to agencies dealing with the problem is helpful.
Some were expecting the last quarterly report from the
Office of Management and Budget to be the one wake-up call to get
politicians on the hill to recognize the Year 2000 problem as a real one.
The report said the cost to fix government systems will be millions more
than originally thought, and another department was put on the list of those who may
fail to meet the deadline. Did this report surprise you at all?
I think there will be incremental costs to fix this problem. But
financing is not the problem. We can budget that over the next two years.
This is a project management issue. As a council, we need to help agencies
with their projects, allow them to assist other institutions to deal with
the issue as well. I've asked all agencies to do three things: Look at
their internal systems, then their interface with third-parties, and
finally what those other parties are doing to handle the problem. There are
areas where government has no jurisdiction. For example, we can work
directly with the Department of Energy, but we have no control over the
public utilities. But we need to be there to assist them as well.