Y2K - Venezuela Faces $1.5 Billion Computer Problem

By Twinkle Chisholm AHM.com www.foxnews.com

CARACAS (Reuters) -- Venezuela needs to spend $1.5 billion in an effort to prevent possible computer chaos coinciding with the change to the year 2000, with the nation's electrical system particularly vulnerable, senior officials said on Wednesday.

Presidential Chief of Staff Alfredo Pena said the previous government, which left office in February, made absolutely no preparations for a problem that requires urgent attention.

"We are very behind and it is very, very serious. We need $1.5 billion for this, which was not approved by the previous government," Pena told journalists at the Miraflores presidential palace.

The government of President Hugo Chavez already is struggling to deal with a $5 billion fiscal deficit, equivalent to about 5 percent of gross domestic product.

State-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, the world's third-largest oil exporter, was aware of the so-called Y2K bug, Pena added, and made progress in preparing its computers for possible errors caused by the date change. But Pena said the electricity sector was very vulnerable.

"Public services could be paralyzed, mainly because of problems with electricity," he said.

The head of the government Central Office of Statistics and Computing, Gustavo Mendez, said Venezuela was one of the least well-prepared countries in the world.

The World Bank and InterAmerican Development Bank have just $200 million in loans available worldwide to help solve the problem, Mendez added.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 30, 1999