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The Office of Management and Budget, which can't apply sanctions against Federal agencies, is telling agencies that November, 1999, is too late to finish. It has to be in March, 1999.
Well, that gets OMB off the hook. "Look, we warned them!"
In short, it's government as usual.
But it won't be in 2000.
This is from GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS (Feb. 23).
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With pressure mounting to make sure federal systems can handle dates come 2000, the Office of Management and Budget has moved up by eight months the deadline for agencies to finish date code fixes.
In a memorandum to agency chiefs, OMB Director Franklin D. Raines said he wants all systems 2000-ready by March 1999. OMB had previously set a deadline of November 1999 for agencies to complete all systems date code work. . . .
Raines said agencies must complete all code renovations by September and must finish testing code by January 1999. The new dates give agencies 11 months to implement systems fixes. . . .
The new deadlines are for mission-critical and non-mission-critical systems. OMB also expects that agencies by January 1999 will have checked and corrected all interfaces with systems run by outside entities such as state and local governments and industry. . . .
Congressional staff members said the OMB deadline moves, though prudent, come too late.
"If you have a deadline agencies can't meet, then don't move it so even more won't meet the deadline," said one staff member with the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management. "It's not going to help them move any faster. It just gives OMB an excuse to dodge responsibility."
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