KPDE reports millennium bug hurdle cleared

KPDE reports millennium bug hurdle cleared

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration declared on Monday that
its computer system is ready to cope with the double digit
millennial problem widely known as the Y2K bug.

Head of the city's electronic data processing office (KPDE)
Suhardi told The Jakarta Post that all of the administration's
computer application software systems used daily for public
service had achieved Y2K clearance to face the threat of the
millennium bug.

Only 30 percent of the administration's entire computer system
has yet to be vetted for the global problem as it is only used,
for example, to record the city's assets, he said.

"We prioritized work in the systems mainly used to serve the
public," Suhardi added.

"The trial run has just been completed. The computers can now
distinguish differences between 1900 and 2000," he said.

The inability of computers to surmount the Year 2000 problem
(Y2K) would crash data and the entire system of a computer
network as well.

It is believed that many state- and privately-owned companies
and institutions have started to adjust their computer systems in
an attempt to deal with the millennium bug either by deploying
their own staff or hiring experts.

According to Suhardi, the upgrading of the system at the
Jakarta administration has been effected by his own subordinates
in the office.

"We have good manpower. It'd be too hard for us if we had to
submit the process to a third party. The cost would be too
great," he added.

He said that the office had also established teams for the
millennium bug projects.

"Each of these teams is concentrating on an application
program, an operating system, as well as hardware and knitter
systems," Suhardi said.

The office had allocated Rp 162 billion for replacing certain
apparatus and Rp 150 billion for expenses of the teams, which
started work in 1997.

"Hopefully, the entire computer system of the administration
will be freed from the millennium bug threat by next June," he
said.

According to Suhardi, the city administration did not allocate
new funds for this project.

"We used our routine expenditure", he said.

In the 1999/2000 draft budget the administration has a
projected allocation of Rp 33 billion for Suhardi's office.

According to the office's head of systems information
management Beny Arifin Yustian, KPDE has actually long been aware
of the threat from the bug.

"We already recognized the problem in 1995 when we were about
to process data on vehicle ownership documents, which are valid
for five years and expire in the year 2000," he said.

Since then the office has undertaken significant efforts to
tackle the problem.

"But, the work can't be done within a short time of period due
to high costs. We're facing a shortage of funds here," he said.

According to data, the KPDE office processes 60 items from 421
different kinds of city administrative services. (ind)