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04.12.1998 Open letter to Prime Minister BondevikWhat can we expect in the public sector in January 2000? On 18 September, the Council of State approved the Ministry of Labour and Government Administration's Proposition No. 1 to the Storting [parliament]. Section 3 (pages 11 to 15) covers the handling of the Year 2000 problem in the State administration. This summary - if it is correct - should give the Norwegian people cause for great concern. It has not done so. This part of the document has received little or no serious coverage by the media. And, as far as I know, little response from your office. Pages 11 to 15 in the Proposition focus inter alia on progress in efforts to solve the problem involving government computer systems and the well-documented Year 2000 problem. Mission-critical systems and systems critical to society are terms used to describe the systems that, if allowed to fail, would make it impossible for a government department to supply the service that it is intended to provide. The Proposition's introduction to Section 3 states: The transition to the year 2000 creates problems for a number of computer programs and a great deal of computer equipment. The problems may have serious consequences for society if they are not solved. My concerns relate to what we have seen in many large IT projects in the public sector, where cost overruns and major delays are unfortunately not unknown phenomena. For full letter, follow the enclosed link. Open letter to Prime Minister Bondevik Trondheim, 1 December 1998. Yours sincerely Bj�rn Normann Visma Norge as. |