MoD commits #100m to millennium bug fix

The MoD will spend #100m to ensure its 500 different IT systems are year 2000-compliant by the Government's December 1998 deadline.

The MoD admitted that some of its systems have already experienced millennium problems, but has declined to gives details on the grounds of national security.

Science and technology minister Ian Taylor has set the December 1998 timetable for government departments to achieve compliance. He wants all systems to have a year to bed-in so that any problems can be identified.

The MoD said it runs hundreds of date-specific systems critical to defence, such as those for intelligence gathering, command and control and equipment failure prediction.

An MoD spokeswoman said: 'A number of systems, mainly in the support area, have already experienced problems which have been remedied. We now have an MoD year 2000 steering committee. It has decided what needs to be done, how much it will cost, and also raises awareness of the issue among senior management.'

Seven companies have been awarded contracts to test and fix MoD systems. They are part of a newly formed category of preferred suppliers for year 2000 services listed in the department's Information Communication catalogue. This holds details on what equipment and services MoD officials can buy. The approved companies include Logica, CMG and ICL, which signed a #20m deal to carry out year 2000 work last week.

ICL is one of the largest IT suppliers to the MoD - 70 ICL personnel will carry out millennium compliance work for the department. Alan Rowley, director of ICL's year 2000 programme, said: 'We have set up a dedicated MoD help desk to satisfy individual requests for year 2000 advice.'

The MoD has also appointed a year 2000 programme manager. The job entails coordinating work to check that existing equipment is compliant, ensuring new products can handle the date change, and planning a budget for the work.