Report on the National Action Plan
Implementation

C o n t e n t s

1. Monitoring and Evaluation Program
   
   
2. Enabling and Facilitating Program
   
   
3. Information Sharing and General Support Program
   
   

Y2k

The Ministries and Central Governmental Offices/Agencies of the Slovak Republic submitted updated Y2K problem solution status reports to the end of September 1999. Based on these reports a comprehensive document has been elaborated by Infostat and after its approval by the Y2K Working Group and the Council of the SR Government for Informatics presented to the Government on October 29.

The document gives an account on the results achieved, assesses the still existing risks and requires further activities for the rest of the year 1999, for the rollover period itself and for the first weeks of the year 2000.

The countrywide co-ordination of contingency plans in electricity, gas and oil supplies as well as in telecommunication services has resulted in a close co-operation of the respective organisations and in establishing of a Year 2000 Transition Centre. The participation on the work of the Centre was broadened by representatives of the police, civil defence, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Centre will collect information on the implementation of contingency plans and in the rollover period will monitor the critical infrastructures and co-ordinate activities in case of emergency situations. The Centre will be headed by a member of the Government.

A survey on the preparedness of small and medium sized enterprises for the transition into the year 2000 has been carried out by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic in September.

The National Agency for the Development of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises has published and distributed 10 000 booklets informing and giving advice to small and medium sized businesses to be prepared for the transition into the year 2000. This publication has been financed from the Planning Grant of the World Bank for the Slovak Republic.

The Association of Cities and Villages of Slovakia held a 2 days conference ˝The Year 2000 Problem in the Environment of Cities and Villages˝ in the first two days of July 1999. More than 100 mayors and specialists participated.

1.3  Reporting to Government

As mentioned already under point 1.1 an updated Y2K problem solution status report has been submitted to the Government on October 29.

The measures recommended to Government are as follows:

• All ministers and heads of other central governmental offices are required

  • to check up the elaboration, testing and implementation of contingency plans on their level of responsibility,

  • to specify the level of services their department/office will provide after January 1st in cases where a specific system will not be fully year 2000 compliant,

  • to define a final date for a standard performance of systems, which were not year 2000 compliant at January 1st.

• The Y2K Working Group will further co-ordinate and monitor the activities connected with the transition into the year 2000 in the country until March 31st. Respective reports will be submitted to the Government on January 31st and March 31st.

• A Year 2000 Transition Centre will be created for the rollover period (see point 1.1).

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will, through the embassies of the Slovak Republic in abroad, monitor the situation in the respective countries and transmit information to the Year 2000 Transition Centre. On the other hand the embassies of the Slovak Republic will provide information to interested parties in the country of their coverage.

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In accordance with the estimates as indicated in the National Action Plan the total costs of Y2K problem solution in the national infrastructures are expected to exceed 2 billion Slovak Crowns (SKK), i. e. approx. 50 million USD. This does not include the private business sector.

2.2   Laws and Regulations

A regulation allowing in case of Y2K problem solution a shorter procurement process anticipated by the respective law for emergency situations or in time pressure has been published in July 1999, as requested by the resolution of the Government from July 14th.

The representatives of the Y2K national taskforce of the Slovak Republic participated on the Regional Workshop on Year 2000 Issues in Sopron, Hungary, on October 14-15, as well as on the Second Infrastructure Providers Year 2000 Workshop in Brussels, Belgium on September 29-30.

Information on the preparedness of Slovakia for the transition into year 2000 were given on request to the Embassies of Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada and Japan in the Slovak Republic, as well as to the Slovak Embassy in the USA. Slovakia also regularly updates the Y2K Country Readiness Status report for the IY2KCC in Washington.

The responsible infrastructure providers in the gas sector had negotiations with their respective partners in Russia and Ukraine and declare that they do not expect any discontinuity in the gas supplies. All other important infrastructure providers, i. e. electricity networks, nuclear plants, air traffic, railways, telecommunications and banking, co-operate within their respective international organisations.

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In order to ensure a co-ordinated management and monitoring of the Y2K problem on the national level the Government of the Slovak Republic has appointed the President of the Council of the Slovak Republic Government for Informatics (CGI), who is member of the Cabinet, to take the responsibility for all nation-wide activities connected with the Y2K problem. At the same time a Y2K Working Group with the President of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic as chairman has been created, Infostat, the Institute of Informatics and Statistics, being its executive body.

3.1.1  Documentation

Infostat in co-operation with HiSys Co. elaborated and published a methodological handbook ˝Preparation to information systems transition into the year 2000˝. The handbook was distributed to all ministries, other central governmental offices and to all regional and district offices of the state administration. It is also available to private business on a commercial base.

A further handbook on contingency planning has been prepared by Infostat during June/July and is available on the Y2K web site.

A proposal of a national standard on date representation based on ISO 8601 was submitted to the Slovak Institute for Technical Standardisation for approval and inclusion into the system of national standards.

3.1.2  Web Site

The web site of the national Y2K Working Group has been established in the frame of the Infostat web site. The address of the Slovak version is www.infostat.sk/y2k, the address of the English version is www.infostat.sk/y2k/e.

The problem of the Y2K is discussed also on the web sites of some ministries (e.g. Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Interior) as well as on the web sites of the National Bank of Slovakia, the Slovak Telecommunications, the Slovak Railways and a number of commercial organisations. A web site ˝Forum2000˝ has been established by an initiative group including also some IT suppliers (IBM, Microsoft etc.) providing selected articles, giving advice and responding questions.

3.1.3  Conferences

Several conferences devoted to the Y2K problem took place, one of them organised in co-operation of the British Embassy and the SOSR,

A one-day national seminar devoted to contingency planning was organised by Infostat with the support of the infoDev program of the World Bank.

3.1.4  Dissemination of information

The Y2K Working Group regularly disseminates reports on the status of the Y2K problem solution in Slovakia, especially in the national infrastructure. For this purpose the official Y2K web site as well as daily newspapers and trade journals are used. Except these two press conferences were organised, the first one discussing the preparedness of the energy and telecommunication sectors, the second one the preparedness of the banking sector and the state railways.

3.2   Competence Centre

The Y2K Working Group is using Infostat as Y2K competence centre. In this role Infostat:

• provides assistance to ministries and other state administration in solving the Y2K problems,

• supports co-ordination between various entities of the state administration,

• prepares documents for the government,

• disseminates information on the preparedness of the country for the transition into year 2000,

• maintains the official web site of the Y2K Working Group.

3.3   Educational Program

A booklet ˝The year 2000 problem in the small and medium-sized enterprises˝ financed from the Planning Grant of the World Bank has been published and distributed in October 1999. The Statistical Office of the SR undertook a research on the preparedness of small and medium-sized enterprises for the transition into the year 2000. The results of the research were published in September.

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