Malfunctioning computers, short life span and wastage of IT components seized in court cases is driving court employees up the wall, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

A senior registrar explained last week that every Wednesday, court staff tested the power supply by switching it off and putting it on again. This person explained that such tests are supposed to be carried out early in the morning before the rest of the staff arrive for work, as common sense would dictate.

However, last Wednesday was a typical case in point when they tested the electricity at 9am, just as everyone was more or less settling down for a day’s work. The result? Six fried computers.

I decided to look further into the matter to discover what causes such a blow out and IT experts said that the reason was simple – cheap components inside the computers.

I asked for more information and it turns out that cheap “on board” rather than “plug in” components tend to be very vulnerable to power surges and that is exactly what happened. Every time they test the electricity, the power surge that spikes when it is turned on simply overloads components such as motherboards, network cards and many other bits and pieces.

One is all for saving money – but at what long-term cost? In the end, more money is being spent because when these components have to be replaced – new plug in items have to be purchased anyway. It is a case of spending too little on inferior quality items.

But it does not stop there. While IT items seized after court cases are reconditioned and put to good use – it seems that our law courts administration are not quite up to scratch when it comes to IT skills.

I also learnt that hard disks are routinely destroyed. Not formatted and wiped and put to good use – literally destroyed – broken into tiny pieces.

Any person with half an ounce of IT knowledge can tell you that a hard disk does not need to be physically smashed to smithereens in order to erase data on them. A simple wipe and format will result in a brand new hard disk that can be put to good use. Perhaps the administration should revise their practices and recondition such items.

But IT is not the only area. Some of the firearms used by police are 20 to 30 years old and, by many officers’ accounts, they have become very difficult to fire.

One police inspector said it was the same thing with weapons. He explained that in court cases where weapons are seized – they too are physically destroyed. “What would be wrong with a ballistics expert checking to see if pistols and such are serviceable. If they are, then why aren’t they given to the Corps to bolster our weapons cache?” he asked quite exasperated.

He said the same held true for cars that are simply left to rust in the police compound. “They should just put them to good use – give them to government departments if anything.”

At least, one of the powerboats that was used for smuggling items or people to Sicily was seized and has been pressed into service with the police.

The army on the other hand has learned, due to its limited budget, that it has to scrounge. The Rapid Reaction Force salvaged a small lightweight boat from the bottom of the sea that is now used as one of their deployment vessels and they are in the process of making another one seaworthy.

It seems this country is constantly complaining it’s broke. Waste not want not… put things to good use. Incidentally, the court has followed up its new security system with the installation of CCTV cameras. One hopes that the computers needed to operate them will not be fried within a week.