Germany Second in Y2K Spending

Updated 4:50 PM ET December 16, 1999

By HANS GREIMEL, Associated Press Writer

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - After lagging behind much of the industrialized world in tackling the millennium computer problem, German authorities say they're confident a late spending spree has put their country in the clear.

The $83.8 billion Germans have spent on Y2K fixes is second only to the United States - and triple the U.S. amount on a per capita basis.

"We realized not everything was in great condition and not all the tests were done on time, so we really had to turn on the speed," said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutz Meyer-Bruns. "All the tests show everything should be Y2K ready now."

The federal government launched a major overhaul of its Y2K preparations this spring. And to soothe fears about its readiness, it spent $3.12 million on a public relations campaign, placing a glossy, 14-page insert in major newspapers.

Still, skeptics say the government has done too little, too late - noting that testing and reprogramming large computer systems can take months.

"The German government thinks the major Y2K responsibility falls on industries themselves, and that is correct," said Klaus Brunnstein, a University of Hamburg computer scientist. "But at no time did they push them to do something or have anybody with technical expertise on standby."

While there is little doubt the financial sector and major corporations worked long and hard on Y2K, a February survey of medium-sized German businesses found nearly 38 percent believed no action was necessary to prepare for the Year 2000.

A followup survey by the German Industry and Commerce Association showed that even if they had planned Y2K work, nearly 45 percent of small enterprises were starting too late.

Meyer-Bruns blamed Germany's tardiness on red tape and the previous administration of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Public funds accounted for $2.1 billion in Y2K spending, he said.

The Y2K problem, a programming flaw in older computers and microchips that renders some incapable of differentiating between the years 2000 and 1900, can be especially dangerous in a high-tech, computerized country like Germany.

In systems where the two-digit expression of years is not identified and corrected, Y2K could cause chaos, halting trains, blacking out towns, crashing phone-switching software and shutting down hospital life-support systems.

From airlines to banks, Germany's critical sectors say they're compliant:

- Lufthansa started testing in 1996 and is confident the 48 planes it will have airborne at midnight Dec. 31 will not malfunction.

- Banks, including heavyweights Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank, conducted their last of 300 successful tests in June.

- Deutsche Telekom, the country's biggest phone company, invested $156 million to make everything from switching stations to billing records compatible.

Dresdner Bank alone will have 2,000 employees at headquarters for the rollover to 2000. Frankfurt Airport, the largest in continental Europe, will be on emergency footing, able to reroute planes in case of Y2K glitches at any regional air traffic control center.

Unlike the United States, which has a White House-appointed coordinator to tackle Y2K preparation, Germany left matters to the loose coordination of the interior and business and technology ministries.

As a result, areas like electrical power could be in trouble, Brunnstein said.

While regional power grids have been individually confirmed Y2K-safe, the inter-grid transfer of electricity has not been as thoroughly tested, he said.

Normally, the transfer of power from one grid to another helps smooth out peaks and valleys in demand. If grid-to-grid transfers are disrupted, blackouts could occur.

Brunnstein said he also sees potential for failure in everything from life-sustaining hospital machines to burglar alarms and elevators.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 16, 1999

Answers

If I read this right, it is saying that everything is ok, except maybe the power grid and things like that! And the Titanic was ok, except for the remote possibility of a collision with an iceberg or something like that...

(On the other hand, I'd fly Lufthansa on rollover!)

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), December 16, 1999.