The Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry said that it is implementing a new policy on the procurement of computers and computer equipment used by the public service and in public schools.

In a call for offers from the private sector issued by the government’s IT agency, MITTS Ltd, the government is asking private suppliers to provide it on a lease for five years all personal computer equipment required for the administration and the education system.

This new lease system will allow the government to procure the latest technology but cutting down on costs due to the critical mass of a bulk lease for the entire service and savings from maintaining similar and compatible technology throughout its branches.

The new suppliers are also being asked to refurbish all existing computers that are still good enough to be re-used to upgrade them to contemporary standards so that the government can distribute them to people and organisations for whom the cost of new hardware is too prohibitive.

Special attention is also being given to the adequate disposal of unusable old PCs to minimise any impact on the environment.

The call for tenders issued last week requires bidders to offer both the hardware leased for five years and its support in parts and labour during the duration of the lease.

This new procurement model overcomes a series of hurdles the public service and public schools had to use the latest technology. Quite a few PCs bought over the years are now obsolete or at best approaching their use-by date. This slows down the level of service provided by public officers but also increases security risks as older technologies are less well-equipped to stop malicious or accidental damage to information.

The project will make a very important difference in primary and secondary schools where budgetary constraints and the fact that Malta was very early in introducing computers in classrooms means that some PCs are now simply too old to be used as teaching and learning tools. Computers in class rooms will not only be faster and smarter but also safer and will allow teachers to exploit fully the e-Learning initiatives of the IT ministry and others.

The ministry considers that the new method of procuring computers for the public service will overcome another endemic problem in the take-up of technology in the service: the fact that the replacement of old technology often depended on the personal enthusiasm for technology or lack of it of department heads. Some offices in the public service today use computers that are more than five years old meaning that they are practically useless when implementing eGovernment and other management and operational tools.

The fact that private suppliers will now enter into a commitment to maintain PCs used in schools and in the service, will allow MITTS Ltd to focus more on its real job: that of advising the government on the use of technology in its operations. Less time on day-to-day support will mean more time to provide services that are critical to the government’s operations; to promote information sharing between various branches of the government; and to harmonise and integrate the services the government provides the public.

The government is using this opportunity to boost its digital divide programme since not all computers currently in use are beyond refurbishment and re-use in another context. The refurbished computers will be passed on to families and organisations that cannot afford a new computer but wish to join the information society anyway.

This will not be a one-off event. The ministry has built in the current procurement process a system whereby computers are removed from deployment in schools and offices well ahead of their expiry date and in good time for refurbishment and re-use. This will reduce the environmental impact of the government’s operations and increase its contribution to the take-up of technology in the community.

The government is also strengthening its commitment to an outsourcing policy: farming out operations that are important for its operations that are better served if provided by private suppliers. Using internal resources to assess, procure, maintain, upgrade and replace computers is ultimately a waste of human and material resources that could be redirected (and are being redirected) to the business of providing high quality public services to the public.

The ‘Tender for the Leasing of Personal Computers (PCs)/Laptops and Workstation Support Services’ (M390/07) is open for offers until 6 June.