State officials confident systems are Y2K compliant

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999 | 11:50 a.m.

Only three states, North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa, are fully ready for the turn of the century, according to their computer programmers.

But Nevada is 90 percent ready and only needs to do more testing, says Marlene Lockard, director of the state Department of Information and Technology.

The federal government, in a report issued last week, said most states are still testing their computers that control everything ranging from prisons to welfare checks to traffic lights. The General Accounting Office said a number of states do not plan to complete Year 2000 efforts until the last quarter of the year. In many cases, the GAO reported, readiness information is not known.

Without naming the states, the GAO said "... some state completion dates are so close to the turn of the century that the risk of disruption to their programs is substantially increased, especially if schedule delays or unexpected problems arise."

Lockard said her agency has spent more than $6 million to change 5,000 lines of code and to conduct the testing. She'll probably ask the Interim Finance Committee for an emergency appropriation in September for more testing.

On Dec. 8 the state and counties will conduct a mock emergency training exercise to see if any unforeseen problems crop up.

The Y2K problem stems from the fact that older computer systems were programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year. Without changes the computers would be working on data as if it were 1900, rather than 2000.

State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said checks are being made now of the embedded computer chips that run heating, ventilation, elevators, security and fire alarm systems in state buildings. Extra generation power is being added at state institutions such as the mental health centers and prisons.

He said the necessary steps are being taken in case of disruption, but "we're not planning for six months of power outages."

The state is developing a $20 million bookkeeping system, and Comeaux said it has installed a Y2K compliant payroll system for state workers and a basic accounting system.

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