Late last year, Auditor General Denis Desautels suggested the federal government still has some way to go in reaching its goal of Y2K-readiness by the end of June. They're further behind for several reasons. One, to get people to move in government, you need consensus at the highest levels in order for budget to be made available. Then, once you're working on it, there's no profit motive to motivate you forward. There's just a sense of social responsibility, and sometimes that isn't big enough.
Governments worldwide are further behind than regular businesses.
That's the way it is. It will say a lot about government efficiency in the first place. But there's a problem, and as we go through 1999, you will see more and more Year 2000-related failures. As an example. When you're looking at 12 months, you're looking at the Year 2000 when, if your programs aren't fixed they start failing.