Testifying before a joint House subcommittee yesterday, United States Postal Service chief technology officer Norman E. Lorentz said that the Postal Service was taking every precaution to minimize potential disruption from the Year 2000 computer problem.
“This is one of the most important public policy issues we are facing this year,” said Lorentz in front of the subcommittee, which was chaired by Reps. Stephen Horn (R-CA), John McHugh (D-NY), and Constance Morella (R-MD). “The Postmaster General and senior Postal Service management are giving this subject significant attention with weekly meetings on the status of the Postal Service’s Year 2000 program.”
More than 400 postal employees and 1,300 contract technical support people are implementing and managing many of the technical elements of the program.
The Postal Service has identified 152 mission critical systems necessary to its core mission of delivering the mail, according to a statement.
As of Jan. 31, 127 have been fully remediated and all but three are scheduled for implementation by the end of June. The Postal Service’s goal is to have its mission critical systems tested and verified as Y2K compliant by September 1999.
