Dear Sir,

I should like to clarify a couple of points in the article "Race to beat the 'bug' hots up" (Campus Post 22 October 1998).

The $56 million approved by the Legislature recently is to enable the University Grants Committee-funded institutions to check and rectify their centrally managed information technology systems and applications to ensure that they are Year 2000 compliant.

As I explained to the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, this sum represents the full amount requested by the institutions for this purpose in the joint submission from the Joint Universities Computer Centre. It should therefore not be "too little".

The institutions' submission was only made to the UGC on 18 May and it was approved, following consideration by the UGC, the Government and the Legislature on 16 September. This is hardly slow and surely not "too late".

Moreover, this sum is not the full amount spent or expected to be spent by the institutions on achieving Y2K compliance. As I said in response to a question from a member of the Finance Committee, $56 million represents less that 50% of the overall cost to the institutions of achieving Y2K compliance. The institutions can and do also use their normal recurrent grants for this purpose.

Nevertheless not all the institutions are, by their own admission, at the same stage in terms of Y2K compliance. We have been assured, however, that all the institutions are fully aware of the issue and are closely monitoring their progress towards achieving the maximum necessary degree of compliance.

Yours faithfully,

Nigel J French
Secretary-General
University Grants Committee
Published: 31 October 1998