Computer delays DHS paychecks 01/15/2000 By John Greiner Capitol Bureau

Thousands of state Department of Human Services workers faced a gloomy holiday weekend Friday after learning their monthly paychecks will be delayed until next week because of an error made by their agency. The checks affected are those deposited directly into employees' accounts at banks and credit unions, DHS spokesman Bill Leitner said.

Leitner said 4,800 of the agency's more than 8,000 employees have their checks directly deposited, but they won't be paid because of a mistake in the direct deposit data file transmitted by the department to the state treasurer's office. The checks bore the wrong date -- Friday, Jan. 15 -- Leitner said.

Because of that error, the state's direct-deposit system automatically changed the date to Tuesday, Jan. 18, the next working day, and forwarded the information to the banks and credit unions.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday.

The error was discovered late Thursday afternoon, Leitner said.

"It was too late to take the necessary type of action so this could be corrected," said George Earl Johnson Jr., DHS director of public relations.

State Treasurer Robert Butkin said he was asking financial institutions to reimburse state employees for any overdraft charges or other fees assessed as a result of the situation.

Kerry Alexander, spokesman for the treasurer's office, said more than 340 banks and credit unions are involved.

Johnson said workers from other offices including the Office of State Finance and the Office of Personnel Management have been pitching in to call banks http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/search_get?ID=432798

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 19, 2000

Answers

This shows that errors still occur without being y2k-related.

-- Bud Hamilton (budham@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.

Just checked my calendar... would you believe January 15 was on Friday in the year 1999? Hmmmmm I noticed the article did not state what year the checks were dated. Me thinks Oklahoma "solved" their Y2K problems by just rolling the date back one year, or the computer didn't roll over at all. I would say this is Y2K related.

-- Cyndi Crowder (cyncrowder@aol.com), January 20, 2000.