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Show Alo BLM The Salt Lake TribuneNATION/WORLDThursday,Jun fice told the House Appropria tions Committee’s Interior Scraps Costly Computer System subcommittee in April In spite of repeated warningsof significant cost overruns and missed deadlines by government auditors. BLM officials continued to hold out hope ALMRS eventu: ally would work Continued from A-1 Pat Shea, the Salt Lake City at- torney who was director of the computer program. Also. in April, a General Accounting Of fre report said ALMRS was a fiilure in spite of 15 years and nore than $411 million spent BLMfrom August 1997 until November 1998. became attracted to the project's potential since he hadspent countless hours poring fanning and developing the soft over BLM’s cumbersome paper iease records doing legal research BLMofficials give several rea ‘onsfor the project's collapse. not quently extolled the project's potential in speeches around the vare. he least of which is the glacial Jace of government procurement information technology an in wstry where new products ve ‘ome obsolete about every 18 nonths. ‘It was a prudent but painful lecision,” said Pete Culp, BLM ssistant director of realty, min for clients. As director, Shea fre country, and made ALMRS one of his central initiatives. Today. he1s chagrinedthat theeffort flopped ‘There is blame tobe laid at my feet for not having at the outset been more rigorous in checking the oil and kicking the tires, be: cause I was assured by peopleI respected that ALMRS was in Nashington. “To alarge extent deed moving down the right track.” said Shea, nowthe deputy while mineral management. vrals and resource protection in be computer world passed us by we were 4LMRSdeveloped trying to get Although the BLM maytakeits irks from Congress for wasting aillions on a failed computer sys&m, agency spokeswoman Celia foddington said the BILM be- lieved it was better to cut its ALMRSlosses now, rather than assistant secretary for lands and “But we had notgotten the kind of custom: er service [from CSC] I believed we were entitled to. and there were some real comm theirs There also were fundamental software problemsthat eventual- ly becamepainfully obvious. muchhighercosts ed mineral lease data four points “We stopped short before diving into the shallow end of the pool,” she said. “Werecognizedit was important to do in-depth test ing before deployment. and that dards the same wayandreportan period of examination enabled us to look at the big picture and make a reasoned decision.” Agency officials have little food to say about prime contrac. br Computer Sciences Corp. CSC), which was given the potenfal 10-year, multimillion dollar ALMRS contract in 1993. A com- yany spokesman told Federal Computer Week, a trade maga- tine. that the BLM’s decision not to renew its contract was “unfortunate.” BLM leaders say while more than $400 million was spent on ALMRSsince 1983, most of the moneypaid for 6,000 computer terminal workstations with tech. nologies that are successfully being usedtoday, such as e-mail and Internet access for BLM employ. ees But approximately $67 million was spent onthe heart of ALMRS knownas the “Initial Operating Capability” (IOC), which never worked properly For example, one tester re ported that entering data for a For instance, one state record- while anotherstate kept its data three points to theright. ALMRS would read the different stan- error. which then had to be corrected by hand. As we got closerto the deploy- 1991 and oil exploration leases — into a single, geographically referenced database to which the BLM computers around the country peals court has upheld the 28. year sentences of three men con victed of attacking a group of US. college students on afieldtrip to Guatemalalast year Cosby Gamaliel Ortiz, 38, Rony Leonel Polanco Sil, 24, and Reyes BuchVentura, 28, were convicted 1996 — ALMRS usertests reveal the system is extraordinarily slow and has atleast 204 “high-priority” software bugs 1997 — The GAOreports on long-standing project weaknesses with ALMRS that, unless corrected, will lead to “undesirable consequences.” Anotherseries of usertests result in software errors such as ing 1998 — The BLMstages an experimentalfield test of ALMRS in New Mexico and found the program could not support the BLM’s routine business practices, was too complex for users and significantly im- ied worker productivity. Employees find entering data into ALMRStakes six times longerthaninputting data into the old Legacy system ALMRS is to replace. 1999 — The GAO reports ALMRScentral operating software remains inoperable andthat the BLM has spent more than $411 million onthefailed project The BLM does not renewits contract with Computer Sciences Corp. and suspends further development of ALMRS code intended to do that never worked. Acting BLM Director Tom Fry told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interi- @ * Prints upto 8 pages per minute will come back and discuss our options with them before weproceed,” he said. “Right now, we havethe basic tools to do our job processing leases into the year 2000, but we still don’t have a really modern integrated system with that spatial capability that would be so advantageous.” However thin, ALMRS may have a silver lining for the BLM. In preparation for the advent of the new computer system, most agency employeesreceived exten- sive training in basic computer skills. “So BLM as a land-management agencyis more advancedin its use, day in and dayout, of information technology, than any other-land management agency.” said Shea. “Should we be farther than weare? Yes.” BN ms 10 = hele partment of Interior lawyers about ALMRSpotentiallyviolat- vont ‘ 539% nana 99 ing individuals’ rights to privacy by putting detailed government records systems — somewhich include home addresses. phone numbers and Social Security numbers — online for mass con- protected Maxi el ate eaoeate —) Digital Color Copi ler #10 minute Plain Paper Fax Machine * Compact size * 15-sheet auto documentfeeder © 150-sheet paper cassette f sumption. ALMRS developers struggled with ways to omit such usually << 20 veirue Beyond software problems questions had been raised by De- information, cA 3 cS E69” ful wayjust howdifferent each of 6 copies black6 cope of onginal * Copy 25% to 400%, from disclosure by the Privacy Act. 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Culp said the BLM is studying whether any of the ALMREsoftware code can be salvaged for a new, as-yet-unnamed computerized system that may resurrect someof the original promises and functionality. DDIZE®” —TAW * includes exclusive Photo REU technology Digital Mavica ’ or incomplete data. and error files that had accurate data PACKARD Tapandng Ponies Refurbished Deskjet™ Color Printer Court Upholds Sentencesin RapesofU.S. Students THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 1995 — The GAO reports “serious”risks being taken by the BLM in developing ALMRS without a “system architecture” or concept for how the system would operate. could simultaneously pluck and add information. It was a grand idea, but the 8,000 lines of complex computer was just enormous,” said Shea ALMRSdid highlight in a pain- frame computer platform GUATEMALACITY — An ap — The Government Accounting Office (GAO) 1993 — The BLM awards a potential $400 million, 10-year ALMRS development contract to Computer Sciences Corp. the states were in their record- entry using ALMRS IOC. whereas transaction would have taken about 10 minutes,’ Joel Willems: sen of the General Accounting Of: million. ment date. we began to look at the data, and the disparity of quality quarters, ALMRS withtheexisting system, the same price of $575 million is later reduced again to $403 finds significant cost increases and major delays in the developmentof a singular database for ALMRS. or in March that the agency is resucstng $19.1 million nextfiscal year to “revise the strategy, plans and schedule to emphasize a more modular approachto land and resource information systems development.” to the right of the decimal point $10 sale of a commodity, such as gravel, required an hour of data Some Bureau of Land Managementemployees joke that the acronym ALMRS,for “Automated Land and Mineral Records S; ” really stood for “A Lot of MoneyRidiculously Spent.” Hereis a brief chronology of the computer project's ill-fated history: 1976 — Wanting to accelerate American petroleum development in the wake of the Araboil crisis, the Carter Administration pushes the BLM to automateits manualoil and gas leasing process. With IBM Corp.'s help. the BLM draws upa “strategic plan” to consider automating several systems. 1982 — Interior Secretary James Watt orders the BLMto clean up a massive backlog of pendingoil and gas leases. 1983 — The BLM pians an automated processing system for land and mineral cases, with an expected life-cycle cost of $240 million. 1988 — The BLM expandsthe scope of the caseprocessing system to include digitizing all historical land records dating back to Western settlement, to display data spatially using geographic information systems technology, and to modernize the bureau's computers and telecommunication equipment. Estimated price tag: $880 million. 1989 — Reacting to concerns about the high cost and ambitious task, the BLMscales down the project, names it the ALMRS/Modernization andselects the end of fiscal 1996 as a target launch. The downsized problemsbetween our people and try to implement a faulty system that would eventually lead to Chronology of the ALMRS Computer Project 966-2400 725-1456] |