Whats really sickening is that even if the paper files were computerized the system wouldn't work... I worked for 12 years at a defense contractors datacenter that did outside work for the IRS and the BIA among other gov't agencies... to save money they did their own datamanagement (backups , database maint, etc...) I know of at least 3 occasions where the BIA lost serious amounts of data that was unrecoverable from backups ... they were simply incompetent.
The way gov't builds things this'll just be a huge kluge ... similar to NASA's computer network ... just add one system at a time as needed for a specific function , never look at the whole... bids are awarded to the low bidder who bids just enough brand X equipment to do the job.. 3 years later when a new (but related) project comes up for bid brand Y is awarded the contract ... soon you end up with 6 different sets of incompatable hardware and software and the 3 oldest need replacing ... Until 1991 it took a week to get an answer on a simple inquiry into when part 12345 was last replaced... and that was if some 1960's computer didn't break down... they eliminated the hardware worries in 1993 by simulating the 40 year old tech as seperate virtual machines on a single large IBM computer running CMS..