United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-05-30 monographic deposited born digital 42 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-97-79 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79 P0b002ee18038d577 f:ai97079 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79 AIMD-97-79 Veterans benefits Information resources management Strategic information systems planning Systems development life cycle Information systems Federal agency reorganization Computer security Requirements definition Computer software Human resources utilization Software Capability Maturity Model Letter Report AIMD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) actions to address management and technical weaknesses reported in a June 1996 hearing on VBA's modernization efforts, focusing on GAO's assessment of VBA's actions to ensure that the year-2000 computing problem will be adequately addressed.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) correcting the year-2000 problem is critical to VBA's mission of providing benefits and services to veterans and their dependents; (2) if not corrected, calculations based on incorrect dates could result in inaccurate and late payment of benefits to veterans, prompting financial stress to millions across the country; (3) VBA has acted to address the problem, but can do more; (4) the year-2000 management office structure and technical capabilities are insufficient; (5) key year-2000 readiness assessment processes--determining the potential severity of the year-2000 impact on VBA's operations, inventorying its information systems and their components, and developing contingency plans--have not been completed; (6) both VBA's initial and revised strategies are risky in that without sufficient information on the costs or potential problems associated with its approach to making systems year-2000 compliant, it cannot make informed choices as to which systems must be funded to avoid disruptions in service, versus which can be deferred; (7) deficiencies in these three areas add risk to an already difficult challenge; (8) addressing these problems will require close and continual top management attention and leadership; (9) contributing to the challenge facing VBA are the loss of key computer personnel, difficulties in obtaining necessary information from external sources on whether interfaces and third-party products are year-2000 compliant, and delays in upgrading systems at VBA data centers; (10) the issue of whether third-party products are year-2000 compliant is being faced by other federal agencies as well; (11) the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) chief information officer told GAO that VBA will: (a) revise its year-2000 strategy to focus on converting the existing noncompliant benefits payment systems rather than replacing them; and (b) acquire contractual support to assist in managing the year-2000 effort and in making necessary changes; (12) these are positive developments, and GAO looks forward to seeing VBA's plans to implement these steps; and (13) the implementation of these recommendations will put VBA in a better position to avoid these types of problems in the future. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79.pdf GAO/AIMD-97-79 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-79 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-97-79; Veterans Benefits Computer Systems: Risks of VBA's Year-2000 Efforts; Veterans benefits Information resources management Strategic information systems planning Systems development life cycle Information systems Federal agency reorganization Computer security Requirements definition Computer software Human resources utilization Software Capability Maturity Model