A regular session of the governmental committee of Russian Federation on the millennium problem took place in Moscow. Along with the other problems, the readiness of IT systems of various ministries and institutions for beginning of year 2000 was discussed. According to Vladimir Bulgak, the chairman of the committee and vice prime minister of Russia, about 80% of federal governmental institutions have inspected their IT systems by the moment; yet only about a half of them were able to present their plans on solving the problem.

Mr. Bulgak nominated the Central Bank of Russian Federation, the State Committee on Communications and Informatics, and the Ministry of Transport as the best prepared for the beginning of the new millennium. On the other side, the Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Fuel and Energetics, Federal Power Commission, the Supreme Arbitration Court and the Constitutional Court are lagging behind in these efforts.

The vice prime minister also said that currently the committee is working on the decree on legal status of Y2K problem. It will set up personal responsibility of the ministers and heads of the departments for solving the problem. The draft of the decree is expected to be completed in a few days and then submitted to the president of Russian Federation for further consideration.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

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