Mills urges serious attention to Millennium Bug

Accra (Greater Accra), 16 Feb. '99 -

Vice-President John Atta Mills today urged heads of public institutions to regard the millennium bug problem as serious and take personal interest in tackling it with zeal and a sense of urgency as some private sector operators are doing.

He tasked them to plan for potential service interruptions by putting in place contingency arrangements for possible failures, especially in utility supplies.

"We have a very difficult task ahead. We can't risk folding our arms and leaving it to God. We should not be complacent by deceiving ourselves that the problem belongs to information technology operators".

Professor Mills was addressing some selected Ministers, heads of security agencies and selected public and private institutions at a seminar on the Millennium Bug, dubbed Y2K, at the Castle, Osu.

The seminar, organised by the Y2K project office of the Ministry of Communications, was specially designed for political heads and other policy makers with the goal of educating them on the problem and sufficiently motivating them to take action to mitigate the anticipated negative impact.

Ministers attending were Mr Edward Salia, Roads and Transport, Mr Isaac Adjei-Mensah, Works and Housing, Mr Cletus Avoka, Environment, Science and Technology, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Education, Dr John Frank Abu, Trade and Industry and Mr Steve Akorli, deputy Minister, Roads and Transport.

Others were the Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Ben Akafia, other senior military and police officers, Mr William S. Parker, Chief Executive of the Tema Oil Refinery, Chief Directors and senior civil and public servants.

Professor Mills cautioned that although resources for the resolution of the problem might be inadequate, this should not be the excuse for inaction, saying that any negative impact of the Y2K problem on the economy would be disastrous.

He called for understanding and co-operation while efforts are made to ensure that all the country's critical services operate into the next century.

The Y2K is the fear that computers will not be able to recognize the year 2000 and might record it as 0000, thus leading to the loss of countless volumes of data and confusion in aviation, banking, transport, electricity and water.

Prof. Mills gave an account of the origin of the bug as well as government's action to mitigate it citing the setting up of the Y2K project office at the Ministry of Communications to co-ordinate the national strategy.

He said if the problem is not corrected it will result in miscalculation, malfunctions and even shut down of computers at midnight on January 1, 2000.

The phenomenon will also affect both Information Technology (IT) and Embedded Systems.

IT systems include a range of computer hardware and software from mainframe computers, like what is used by the Controller and Accountant-General's Department, to personal computers.

Embedded systems are microprocessors found in a vast array of devices such as biomedical equipment that are used at health care facilities, electrical monitoring and distribution devices.

Almost everybody relies on embedded systems for daily routine activities, such as elevators, mailing of letters, use of ATM cards at the banks, often without recognising that a computer microprocessor is involved. This system also supports electrical power stations, telecommunication systems, hospital equipment, among others.

"The bug will affect you, no matter what kind of industry you work in, no matter what size of organisation or the level of computerisation or where you are located," Prof. Mills said.

He said the future of these systems could have a range of effects, from minor annoyances to major disasters.

The Vice-President explained that the Y2K is a management and business problem and not just a computer problem.

"The cause is a computer glitch but the consequences extend far beyond merely replacing hardware and software."

He cautioned that complacency and inertia must, therefore, give way to serious interest in remedial measures.

GRi.../