Executive Order  No. 408: Meeting the Year 2000 Challenge

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts relies extensively on computer and communications technologies to provide a broad range of services necessary for the health, welfare, and safety of its citizens; and

WHEREAS, many computer and communications systems, including hardware, software, and firmware, were designed in such a way that they cannot accurately process date information for dates after December 31, 1999; and

WHEREAS, Year 2000 failures in the Commonwealth's mission critical and essential computer and communications systems could have serious consequences for the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth has already devoted substantial human, financial, and technical resources over the past several years to address the Year 2000 problem and has made significant progress in this regard; and

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth must be vigilant to minimize potential Year 2000 disruptions in its computer and communications systems;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Argeo Paul Cellucci, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Supreme Executive Magistrate, do hereby order as follows:

Section 1: Definitions

For purposes of this Executive Order, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

"State agency", any state agency as defined in section 1 of chapter 6A of the General Laws;

"Year 2000 compliant", information technology that accurately processes date/time data (including, but not limited to, calculating, comparing, and sequencing) from, into, and between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the years 1999 and 2000, and leap year calculations. Year 2000 compliant information technology, when used in combination with other information technology, shall accurately process date/time data if the other information technology properly exchanges date/time data with it.

Section 2: Declaration of Policy

The chief operational priority for all state agencies shall be to attain Year 2000 compliance on or before July 1, 1999.

The head of each state agency shall be responsible for, and will be held accountable for, Year 2000 compliance activities and performance within his or her state agency. In cases where attaining Year 2000 compliance is not possible, or where there is an appreciable risk that a state agency system will not be Year 2000 compliant, the agency heads shall be responsible for, and will be held accountable for, devising and implementing a contingency plan for ensuring uninterrupted service delivery.

The secretary of each executive office and the director of each department shall appoint a senior official to oversee and coordinate the Year 2000 compliance and contingency planning activities of each agency within his or her secretariat or department. All secretaries and directors shall be responsible for, and will be held accountable for, overseeing and coordinating successful contingency planning for each agency within their secretariats or departments.

Section 3: Oversight and Enforcement of Year 2000 Remediation and Contingency Planning

The Secretary of Administration and Finance is hereby directed to take appropriate measures to enforce Section 2 of this Executive Order. All executive agencies, including specifically the Fiscal Affairs Division and the Information Technology Division, are hereby directed to take such measures as the Secretary of Administration and Finance may require to assist him in ensuring that all state agencies attain Year 2000 compliance.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston this 14th day of December in the year one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight.

Argeo Paul Cellucci

Acting Governor

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

William Francis Galvin

Secretary of the Commonwealth