Often, these companies shied away from bonuses because of the difficulty in assessing which staff members should be considered strictly year-2000 workers and which members had primarily other responsibilities.

CNN: Managers turn away from retention bonuses for Y2K

"You know that if you fire those three or four key members of staff the company would shut down immediately, and all the workers would lose their jobs, including those who have no links, " says Gianpaolo Capasso, the head of the agency in the Campania region.

BBC: Italy tackles mafia-owned businesses

This offers over 400 competing private plans to almost 9m people active and retired members of Congress and their staff, and active and retired federal and postal workers and their families.

ECONOMIST: Will anyone dare touch Medicare?