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Statement by
Marshall S. Smith
Acting Deputy Secretary
Before the
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
of the
House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I appreciate this opportunity to update the Subcommittee on the Department of Education's progress toward achieving full Year 2000 compliance.
I am pleased to report today that we completed renovation for 12 of our 14 mission-critical systems by September 30, including the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program System and the Multiple Data Entry (MDE) System. We also completed validation of our Direct Loan Central Database system and our Direct Loan Servicing System, as well as full implementation of the Impact Aid Payment System.
The schedule I provided on September 17 slipped for one critical system -- the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). Some testing remains to be completed for NSLDS to ensure compliance. In addition, as part of the continuing modernization of our systems, over the next two weeks we will re-generate the compliant code on a new computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tool, and we will continue to test this and all subsequent modernization changes for Year 2000 compliance. We remain on schedule for implementation of a compliant NSLDS by the end of October. (See chart for the up-to-date status of all mission-critical systems. As a point of clarification, the validation section shown on this chart includes the IV&V assessment.)
With regard to our non-critical systems, we did not hit the ambitious target that I gave at the last hearing of completing work on all but 5 systems.
Of the Department's 168 non-critical systems, 156 are either Year 2000-compliant and fully implemented, or retired. This leaves 12 systems. We are completing work as expeditiously as possible on the 5 remaining non-critical systems under our control, and we are monitoring progress on the 7 non-compliant systems operated by other Federal agencies.
Our biggest concern in this area continues to be systems operated by other Federal agencies. On September 17, I indicated that we were monitoring progress on three such systems. Since that hearing we have learned that four additional systems operated by other Federal agencies cannot yet be confirmed as Year 2000 compliant. We have been told that these agencies plan to complete work within the OMB milestones, but we will not be in a position to provide any assurances to the Subcommittee until we receive documentation certifying compliance.
Within the Department, we have fallen behind on some components of two systems operated by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. We are still waiting for contractor validation documentation for the web-access subsystem of the mission-important Education Resources Information Centers. In addition, the Major Data Collections system administered by the Educational Testing Service lacks validation for some of its servers.
We also have changed our plans for one non-critical system. We have decided to add the Federal Student Aid Information Center (also known as the PIC, for Public Inquiry Contractor) to our inventory as a Mission Important System. This is why we are now reporting 168 non-critical systems instead of the 167 I discussed at the last hearing. A competition is currently under way for a new, Year 2000-compliant center expected to be operational by the end of March, 1999. We had planned to add this facility to our inventory when the new contract was signed. We now believe that it is advisable to renovate the existing center, so that we can be sure of meeting the March 31 OMB deadline even if the new center is delayed. The Department is currently assessing the work to be done on the PIC, including costs and a schedule for completing work by the end of the year.
Ensuring timely and successful Year 2000 compliance demands more than the usual level of accountability from everyone involved. As the Chairman and others have noted, the arrival of the new millennium cannot be postponed. The Year 2000 tracking processes set up by OMB and the Congress are part of this accountability.
Within the Department, we are emphasizing accountability for everyone involved in our Year 2000 project. Agency program officers, staff, and contractors all must understand that commitments to complete Year 2000 tasks by assigned deadlines cannot be breached lightly. One way to get this point across is by including Year 2000-related performance standards in individual employee performance agreements. Last spring I asked all Department senior officers to add a specific standard related to Year 2000 compliance to the performance agreements of those managers with Year 2000 responsibilities.
It is also important to verify that systems declared compliant are actually compliant. For our mission-critical systems, we are providing this assurance through the IV&V process, under which independent, experienced contractors confirm Year 2000 compliance. IV&V is part of our validation process and timeline. It is expensive and requires additional time, but we believe it is the best way to make sure the job is done right for those systems most essential to the Department's mission.
In addition, all of our systems -- critical and non-critical -- must go through a two-part closeout process. First, we conduct a system closeout once the Year 2000-compliant version of a system is implemented. The system manager, principal office coordinator, Year 2000 Project Management Team liaison, and an outside consultant meet to verify that all compliance activities have been completed, and that documentation supporting compliance is on file. A Year 2000 System Closeout Form must be signed by all key personnel.
Second, once all Year 2000-compliant systems in a principal office are implemented, and after contingency plans have been developed, the responsible senior officer must provide the Year 2000 Project Director with a signed letter of certification that all systems have successfully completed the Year 2000 compliance process.
Since September 30 we have been engaged in a review of the documentation prepared by principal offices as part of the closeout process for individual systems. Last week the General Accounting Office (GAO) visited the Department in middle of this review to conduct its own examination of our system documentation. GAO provided a thorough and useful review, and we are following up vigorously in those areas in which GAO auditors indicated that documentation should be augmented.
While the Department did not fully meet the aggressive deadlines I provided at the September 17 hearing, we did make solid progress toward full compliance for all of our systems. We understand that much remains to be done to complete renovation of our own systems, to coordinate testing across systems, and to carry out contingency planning for core business processes. We agree with GAO that the latter must be a high priority over the coming months.
I remain confident that we will achieve full Year 2000 compliance and implementation of all of our systems by the OMB deadline of March 31, 1999. One benefit of the deadlines in our Year 2000 project plan is that they help us focus on problem areas and make appropriate changes to get the job done. This includes not just completion and implementation of our systems, but also an aggressive effort to work with our customers to assure that services are not disrupted.
Thank you and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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