U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

MMS CRITICAL SYSTEMS Y2K COMPLIANT

    The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced

today that the agency’s mission critical systems have been fully renovated, tested, validated, and

implemented as Year 2000 compliant.

    MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman said, "After an in-depth assessment of MMS’s diverse application systems, four were identified as critical to the overall mission of the agency." Mission critical systems are defined as those that when their capabilities are degraded the organization realizes a resulting loss of a core capability, or life or property are threatened.

    The four critical systems identified include the Offshore Minerals Management’s Technical Information Management System (TIMS); the Royalty Management Program’s accounting system; and two Offshore Minerals Management fair market value determination models. These systems are the key support mechanisms for the Royalty Management and Offshore Minerals Management programs. They are essential for the accurate reporting, collection and disbursement of over $6 billion each year, as well as for assessing the fair market value of offshore leases to ensure the public receives a fair return for the leasing of their lands. "Our customers and 5,200 data exchange partners can be assured that they will be able to do business with us in 2000 without blinking an eye," said Quarterman.

    Quarterman noted, "Once again, the people of MMS have shown their ability to do extraordinary work in setting goals and achieving them to the benefit of our customers and the American taxpayers." The MMS was one of the first bureaus in the Department of the Interior (DOI) to begin assessing the impact of the Y2K problem in its mission critical systems in late 1996. Since that time, a core team has managed and monitored the progress to meet very aggressive timetables set forth by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and DOI. In fact, the renovation, validation, and implementation work was completed several months in advance of both the OMB, DOI, and internal MMS milestones, and accomplished under cost estimates.

    MMS took advantage of contractor expertise and support and used several automated tools to complete the project at a cost of $1.8 million; 14 percent under the original cost estimate of $2.1. As directed by OMB, all Federal mission critical systems must be Y2K compliant by March 1999.

    MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf, and collects, accounts for and disburses about $6 billion yearly in revenues from offshore federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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