http://www.scmp.com/news/template/HK-Template.idc?artid=19990415005903010&top=hk&template=Default.htx&maxfieldsize=2007

Thursday April 15 1999

Airport's Y2K-bug policy revealed

MAY SIN-MI HON The Airport Authority did not demand its software contractors supply systems free of the millennium bug, legislators were told yesterday.

Authority chief executive Billy Lam Chung-lun told a joint Legco panel there was no stipulation in the software contracts awarded from 1994 to 1998 that software had to be Y2K compliant.

"We did not request compliance with the Y2K problem for the software but we requested suitability for the purpose," Mr Lam told the panel that is considering recommendations made by three reports on the airport chaos.

Mr Lam said the authority had tested 43 of the 124 software systems.

Contractors had said 60 per cent of the systems were Y2K compliant, he said.

Live tests, instead of simulated tests, were conducted at nights, he added.

The authority will also conduct large-scale testing on the contingency plan for the software systems in June.

Legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing of The Frontier quoted from government submissions that none of the 28 software systems of Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited had been tested for the millennium bug.

Democrat Lee Wing-tat said he was disappointed at the progress.

"You have completed only about 35 per cent of the systems. Why is there no such requirement in the contracts?

"How can the public be confident [in the airport]? If you are so confident, I will challenge the Secretary [for Economic Services, Stephen Ip Shu-kwan] and the new members of the Airport Authority to travel on a plane around midnight of December 31," Mr Lee said.

Mr Ip responded: "I will travel with you if you wish to do so."

"I am not willing to do so," Mr Lee said.

Mr Lam said the authority was to cut its budget by 15 per cent this year to raise efficiency.

He said the authority had cut the number of directors and also commissioned a study to increase efficiency.

"It includes merging divisions to avoid duplication of work," he said. The report would be completed by June.

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 15, 1999

Answers

Compare their "response" to what NorthWest Airlines and Detroit Airport did. NorthWest found they had a significant effort to get the hub (Detroit) compliant, but the city cooperated and supported the rest of programs and systems.

Here, sounds like they are reducing budgets and "blamestorming" for excuses.

This is Hong Kong. What about Singapore? Tokyo?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), April 29, 1999.