The government will be making thousands of refurbished computers with newly-licensed software available to financially-challenged individuals and families as part of the reorganisation of the government’s hardware needs.

The reorganisation represents a shift from an ownership based model to a lease and support based model. Once old computers from government entities and schools are replaced, the old computers will be refurbished and offered to financially-disadvantaged individuals and families for the cost of refurbishment – a mere fraction of the cost of a new computer, while Microsoft will be providing licensed software free of charge.

The first such disadvantaged group to receive the offer will be the disabled, with the assistance of the National Commission for Disabled Persons.

The new leasing procurement method will involve the replacement of the 15,000-odd computers in use by the public service and public schools across Malta and Gozo by way of a tender, which has been highly criticised by both the opposition party and the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU).

Such parties, however, appear to be failing to see the big picture of significant cost savings, recommended on the basis of an 18-month study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry, a ministry spokesperson said yesterday.

A number of purchasing and leasing models were considered through the study, but the leasing model had been found the most favourable by far.

“Lower costs are the bottom line and the cost to the government for the five-year tender cycle was the fundamental driver behind the government’s decision on the lease option,” the spokesperson explained.

The study had found the government’s cost of ownership was unnecessarily high when compared with the leasing and support model, which the government had eventually settled on.

The ministry spokesperson also pointed out the high cost of ownership and support, the costly price of disposing of thousands of PCs, and a lack of standardisation of hardware and software across public entities and schools.

Within the first year of the contract, all 15,000 PCs would be updated to the latest technologies, first schools and later the public service – correcting the previous shortfall in harmonisation of the government’s IT needs.

The spokesperson also referred to the fact that a large number of computers in use across government entities and schools date back to the mid-1990s. Many such computers, in fact, are only able to use the by-now-antiquated Windows 95 operating system, with primary schools having particularly old systems.

Up to the issuing of the recent tender, the government had bought computers through an e-procurement process on an ad hoc basis as segmented needs for new computers came about.

This meant a lack of synchronisation in “refreshment cycles” of the 15,000 PCs spread across Malta and Gozo, meaning they needed replacing at different times, a fact that had made financial planning practically impossible.

Through the new contract, which was issued on 25 April and closes on 6 July, all such computers would be upgraded and replaced at the same time, within a year-and-a-half of the awarding of the tender.

With computer lifespans running at five years for a desktop model and three years for a laptop, the eventual suppliers of leased computers would be obliged to support the machines as part of the annual fee. As such, costly technical support for the computers would also be outsourced to the private sector as part of the obligation.

The Malta Information Technology and Training Services employees currently undertaking such work, about 20, will be retrained to carry out higher-value work.

Addressing complaints by the MLP and the GRTU that the tender had been geared toward larger companies, the ministry spokesperson observed that consortia are allowed in the tender and that there is nothing stopping a local company from forming part of one, adding that even if the tender were to go to a European company, the service and support element would most likely go to a local partner since such activities required people based in Malta.

On the issue of the Lm25,000 bid bond for the contract, the ministry stressed this was a normal stipulation of such a tender and that the bid bond level had not been set by the ministry, but rather by the law, which had contemplated such a situation as was being alleged by the GRTU.

Moreover, the tender splits the global 15,000 PCs into eight categories, which can be applied for individually or in combinations best suited to the bidder in question. The option of a separate service and support contract has also been offered.