businesses seem to be lagging behind. Now business organisations hope an information drive will aid them. Mairi Mallon reports. By Mairi Mallon With just under 100 days to year 2000, nearly a quarter of small businesses in Bermuda are not prepared for the new national pension scheme it has been revealed.

A survey carried out by Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation (BSBDC) showed that while 76 percent of smaller companies seem to be ready for the change-over on January 1, 2000, a large percentage are running behind schedule.

A minority, 2.5 percent, professed ignorance about the new policy. The majority in this category appeared to be self- employed and did not seem to realise they needed private pensions.

"There is a clear indication that people are aware of the new occupational pensions Act as nearly 98 percent of the businesses surveyed said that they understand that the new Act will affect them,'' said Neville Grant, the Business Development Officer at BSBDC, yesterday.

"However, even though a large number of people are aware of this new piece of legislation, a little over 50 percent of the businesses surveyed still do not feel that enough information was provided to them on the legislation's requirements.'' However, most Bermudian businesses appear to have systems in place to deal with the Millennium bug, with 97 percent hoping to have testing completed by next month.

According to a survey compiled by the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce earlier this year, 98 percent of their members had started to review the effects of Y2K-related system failures on their business with 95 percent having prepared a plan to tackle any problems.

While only 15 percent had actually completed tests, a small amount -- three percent -- had not yet begun or did not feel it necessary to do any work related to the Y2K issues.

But Sharon Jacobs, the Executive Vice President of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce said that there was a perception that it was small businesses who were not prepared for Y2K.

"While the results are encouraging, some smaller businesses who do not have an IT department may not be prepared,'' said Ms Jacobs.

Pension plan In response to the perceived need for more information on the effects of both the Millennium bug and the new pension scheme a partnership was formed between BSBDC, The Bermuda Chamber of Commerce, Ernst and Young and Bermuda Employers Council to help improve understanding both issues.

This partnership has set up a strategy to make information about issues surrounding the two potential problems more accessible.

Next week an hour-long television programme with information on pensions and Y2K will be broadcast on VSB.

The programme "Business Track 2000 - helping small businesses succeed'' will have a televised panel of experts who will be on hand to offer advice to businesses on what to do about the millennium bug and the Bermuda Government's new mandatory workplace pension.

They will have information and checklists which will be helpful to businesses to make sure they are adequately prepared for the new year.

"We will have information on how you can get advice as well as real strategies which can be used to get on top of pensions and Y2K,'' said BSBDC general manager William Spriggs.

"It is not a programme just for those who are not prepared, but can be of help to those who have implemented strategies. You may find that you have done seven out of 10 things that are on our checklist.'' David Reid, a senior manager at Ernst & Young, who is the main sponsor of the programme, said that the partnership of companies came together to help businesses cope with two difficult transitions at the same time.

"We saw there was a need to assist local business and we got together with the three other organisations to make sure we would not duplicate between ourselves, and out of this grew a partnership, Business Track Initiative.'' The partners will offer simple solutions which are cost effective which can be implemented by even the smallest of businesses. Mr. Spriggs said: "Backing up your computer on disk and then checking, or printing out hard copies of information are two very simple ways of making sure you keep your data.'' The programme will be broadcast on Tuesday, September 28 at 8pm on VSB, with a repeat to be shown on Friday, October 1 at the same time.