He will negotiate maintenance. Volume purchasing will be available to state and local government. Jim Close mentioned the agencies needed to submit their Year 2000 assessment checkpoints by March 15, 1998. The progress report will be given to the Governor's Office in the next few weeks. At the next IPC meeting, Mr. Close will give a progress report overview.
Several agencies are still at high risk for system failure.
The Project Office will hold an informational meeting for agencies on March 23. The Project Office is concerned that there will not be enough funds to support the agency requests that have already been identified. However, they have some restricting language on how the money can be spent and there is also a requirement for external testing on all systems. On March 18, there was a motion to accept the Senate language and funding amount, but it was tabled because Senator Price would like it to have full funding. Larry Palmer mentioned firmware is a major issue.