August 13, 1999

To: Short-Term Consultants

Short-Term Temporaries

As I am sure you are aware, there have been processing delays in effecting fee payments for short-term consultants and short-term temporaries over the past few weeks. The overall status of this delay has been communicated in the Kiosk, but I am writing, on behalf of Bank Management, to express our deep regret for the inconvenience and hardship from any delay you may have experienced. As stated in the kiosk announcement, one payment late is too many, and I again apologize to you for any inconvenience and hardship you may have experienced.

In light of these difficulties, short-term consultants and short-term temporaries who have experienced significant delays in receiving payment for professional services will receive a one-time, ex-gratia oayment of $100. The following groups will be eligible for payment:

+ All short-term consultants whose payments were processed by ACT between July 14 and August 6, 1999. Since the delay in processing these payments was more than 14 days in most cases, individuals will not be required to present documents showing the length of the delay.

+ All short-term temporaries who did not receive payments on July 16, 1999. Since the delay in processing these payments was more than 14 days in all cass, individuals will not be required to present documents showing the length of the delay.

+ All short-term consultant whose payments were processed by ACT between August 9 and August 19, 1999, with a delay of 14 days from the date of submission of their request for payment of services. These individuals will be required to present documents showing the date on which they submitted their bill and the date on which they received payment.

The ex-gratia payments will be made in September, and more details will be communicated at that time.

Sincerely yours,
Richard Stern
Acting President
[The World Bank]

[Thread poster name change--per poster request--Sysop]

-- Uri (spoon@bender.esp), August 26, 1999

Answers

I wonder if the World Bank would consider putting this out as a template on their web site, so that as we get closer to Jan 1, other businesses can use this to nicely explain why their employees, suppliers, customers, etc., are going to get stiffed due to Y2K related problems?

Just the tippy-tip of the iceberg, folks....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

It's interesting that the Bank does not indicate when late payments to those still unpaid will be paid. Will ex-gratia payments arrive prior to payment of professional services (performed months ago) for some consultants and temporaries. According to the grapevine, one employee took several days of sick leave last week because she emotionally couldn't handle telling consultants that she had absolutely no idea when they were going to get paid.

-- Schultz (i@know.nothing), August 26, 1999.

Ouch! Uri.

Ripples 'n dominoes.

Diane

(Guess having stored food 'n supplies is just prudent labor force "glitch insurance.")

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 26, 1999.

a hunnerd lousy bucks???!!!

even more of a reason to withdraw all cash from banks - they have no class, no style... no honour

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 26, 1999.

Uri,

This doesn't state if even one payment has been made or if the $100.00 payment has been made. And this is World Bank...very scary.

If you check back, could you e-mail me?

Thanks,

Mike

===================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

Since the delay in processing these payments was more than 14 days in most cases, individuals will not be required to present documents showing the length of the delay.

opps, my mistake

so, is the problem fixed? if so, what was done?

that's what I wanna know...

Mike

==================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

How about getting some more temps to calculate "x hours times $y per hour" and make up a pay envelope with CASH?

(Ain't gonna happen, got to calculate withholding or whatever they call their payroll taxes there and all the other deductions. We all know that is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN GETTING THE HELP PAID.)

Triage, anyone?

-- A (A@AisA.com), August 26, 1999.

Richard Stern Acting President [The World Bank]

Did James Wolfensohn resign as President (and possibly go back to running his investment firm with former Fed chairman Volcker)? Richard Stern is listed as VP of Human Resources in the most current World Bank org chart I can find.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 26, 1999.

Today's "fun quote from a previous life" --

MEETING: Networked Economy Conference

DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995

LOCATION: Mayflower Hotel, Washington DC

-------------------------------------

[snip]

Richard Stern (Director, Industry and Energy Department, The World Bank):

"Let me first tell you my qualifications [in answering a question about the Year 2000]: I've spent all my life trying to predict the future, and I've invariably gotten it wrong."

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 26, 1999.

Mac,

[The World Bank] is added by me to indicate the source of this letter as the letterhead and envelope make clear. I have no idea who the current President is and Why Stern is signing off as an Acting President. Myself, I thought there was only one president under which there are many vice presidents.

Maybe the other guy headed for the hills? [grin]

Sincerely,
Uri

-- Uri (spoon@bender.esp), August 26, 1999.

Uri,

This note is interesting.

I've been informed (and I mean that) that the problem was actually much deeper than a couple weeks. I had thought it was closer to a month or more. Enough time for people to have a serious financial crunch.

The report that the number of part time employees or contractors were many more than 200, which the World bank claimed, and could have been more than 1,500 easy. This is extrapolating the number of contractors in each department.

Its not perfect, but kone contractor had become so upset he resorted to physically bullying his project manager. She was pushed to the ground. (Now keep in mind this is just one incidence of harassment. The other project managers had all recieved countless phone calls at their residences when the project managers could not give them sufficient answers at work.

It was quite tense.

Father

-- Thomas G. Hale (hale.tg@att.net), August 27, 1999.

Why didn't the buffoon in charge just bail them out on his Amex card?

Does he have a brain?

This IS the WORLD bank isn't it... what a bunch of incompetent nit wits...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 27, 1999.

Here's an e-mail I received from Paul at the world bank in response to my question, was the problem with their payroll system y2k related.

=============================================

Return-Path:
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 12:56:59 -0400
From: Pllido@worldbank.org
Subject: Re: Thanks For Stepping Up To The Plate with regard to y2k.

To: ray@totacc.com (ray )
Cc: [snip--per request--Sysop]
Content-disposition: inline
X-Lotus-FromDomain: WORLDBANK

Ray,

Nope. It was and still is an SAP hitch. We're moving to a fully electronic accounting and management system using SAP and as usual the old systems die hard.

Paul

================================== End

Note: I was given permission to publish it.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 27, 1999.

SAP!!!!! ???????

Was Hoffy working on this project!!!!???????

Inquiring minds need to know... :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 27, 1999.

But if:

1) the pre-SAP system was not Y2K compliant

2) the reason, or one of the (major) reasons, for migrating to SAP was to be Y2K compliant

then in fact aren't SAP problems really "Y2K" problems??? I mean, I'm sure that the SAP system handles 20th/21st century dates just fine, but the reality is that the problems would perhaps never have occurred had there not been the Y2K compliance motivation. Which, of course, also has the immovable deadline.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 27, 1999.