Unlike many private and public sector organisations, Brisbane City Council, the largest Local Government authority in Australia, has been working on Year 2000 compliance for over three years. Its efforts have been acknowledged by the Queensland Audit Office.
“The report it handed down stated that Council was well placed to deal with the 2000 problem,” said Councillor John Campbell, Chair of Brisbane’s Finance Committee.
“This response backs up our belief that we are leading the way in Y2K management.
“I am confident it will be business as usual for Brisbane as far as Council services are concerned.”
Brisbane commenced its four phase Y2K project in 1996. It is now well into the fourth phase which involves planning for contingencies outside Council’s control.
John Campbell said that it is important that from 1 January not only are essential Council services, like water, available to ratepayers, but there is no interruption to non Council services, such as telecommunications and power.
“We have been working closely with the providers of these services to ensure this occurs,” he said.
“The project is nearing completion of an assessment of external factors, including supply dependencies with the potential to impact on Council’s operations.
“Continuity Management plans are being developed to ensure Council’s critical business operations will function, if dependencies such as electricity fail. The plans will be tested throughout 1999 to ensure their effectiveness in the event that they are required.”
Council has set itself a deadline of 31 March to have its IT and non IT systems compliant.
For further information contact Andrea Bond, telephone (07) 3403 5407.
