Y2K bug danger not over yet

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Agencies monitoring the Y2K bug will not be celebrating before international financial markets open tomorrow and, in New Zealand, businesses reopen on Wednesday.

So far, the bug has proved mostly a phantom, with international authorities saying the only badly affected country is Gambia, where power cuts and systems failures are causing widespread problems. The Government has been forced to give everyone a day off work to relieve the pressure on electrical, transport, financial and other services.

Elsewhere around the globe, only minor problems emerged, mainly with dates on bills and court summonses reverting.

A United States spy satellite stopped intelligence gathering for a few hours because of a Y2K problem until a ground backup system took over.

New Zealand's Y2K Readiness Commission, which scaled back its monitoring centre yesterday in a sign that - so far - the country has made it through the rollover unscathed, will be watching as the world economy cranks up after the weekend celebrations.

"The irony is that while the world was watching us because we were the first to see midnight, we are one of the last to go back to work," commission chairman Basil Logan said yesterday.

Beneath the Beehive in Wellington, officials were pleased with New Zealand's performance, but were holding off celebrations.

Mr Logan warned that Wednesday could yet be a test of our readiness as key services such as power and telecommunications experience increased demand.

It is a message mirrored overseas, where no one is prepared to give a clean bill of health until banking and communications systems have coped with the demands of a full day's trading.

The Chicago futures exchange was due to become the first major international market to start electronic trading early today.

But experience so far suggests that the Y2K bug was a fizzer. Sceptics wonder if it ever existed, and believe the years of work by computer technicians were a waste of time and money.

In New Zealand alone, more than $1 billion is estimated to have been spent testing and upgrading systems. The global cost is put at $US 500 billion by the Washington Post.

Mr Logan dismissed the criticism, saying it was like asking why you paid insurance if your house did not burn down.

One of the biggest spenders, the electricity sector, does not regret the $100 million it spent battling the bug.

Transpower, the national grid operator, said it had been sensible business to take precautions.

"We spent $8 million, and if you look at the size of our asset and the essential part it plays in the economy, it was $8 million well spent," said spokesman Wayne Eagleson.

Computer industry analysts International Data Corporation said it expected "annoying and embarrassing" Y2K glitches, but nothing serious.