Qatar Takes Y2K Salary Precautions

Updated 8:39 AM ET December 19, 1999

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - The Qatari government has decided to pay its civil servants their monthly salaries on Monday instead of at the beginning of the month as a precautionary measure against the Y2K computer bug, an official said Sunday.

Although all governmental bodies in Qatar have declared they are Y2K compliant, salaries would be paid early in case of any unexpected problems, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Y2K bug is a programming glitch that could cause some computers to read the "00" in 2000 as the year 1900, possibly causing a loss of data and other malfunctions. A few months ago, Qatar formed a committee to deal with the Y2K problem that included ministers, economists and computer analysts.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 20, 1999