GAO cited hundreds of applications, software, and hardware systems at the IRS that are 25 years or older or written in a programming language that has fallen out of use. Image: dotshock/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffGAO has said that while much of the attention to outdated IT in government has focused on the IRS, that “is just one of many agencies, government-wide, grappling with aging or old IT systems.”
“Of the government’s $100 billion in annual IT spending, 80% goes to operating and maintaining existing systems. The older the systems are, the more the upkeep costs—and, older systems are more vulnerable to hackers,” said a blog posting.
The GAO noted that in a recent report it cited hundreds of applications, software, and hardware systems at the IRS that are 25 years or older or written in a programming language that is no longer used. Among those is the primary system that IRS uses to process individual taxpayer account data.
That system, built in the late 1960s, “has been updated over the years, but maintaining it is getting harder because it relies on a computer programming language (COBOL) that fewer and fewer programmers know,” it said.
The GAO noted that in a 2021 report it found similar problems with 65 legacy systems, identifying 10—each at a different agency—that were as much as 51 years old and that “also used outdated code, relied on hardware or software that manufacturers no longer support, or had major security risks.”
Like the IRS system, those systems also underlie essential services–such as emergency management, health care and defense—it said.
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