Court-appointed experts have been paid more than a million euros since January, the highest outlay in three years, Times of Malta has learnt.

Figures obtained from the Justice Parliamentary Secretariat for the courts in Malta show that the expense included €342,000 in pending payments.

While it has been customary for some payments to be postponed, unpaid bills carried over to 2013 were almost four times higher than amounts carried over to 2012 from the previous year.

“We inherited €342,000 in bills that were not paid last year because of lack of funds,” said Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici.

In 2010 the Maltese courts spent €965,000 on experts, leaving a bill of €32,000 that was carried forward to the year after. In 2011, experts were paid €876,000 but the pending amount rose to €93,000.

Last year, the courts paid €865,000 but pending payments rose to €342,000 and these were carried forward to this year.

Until August 23 public coffers were set back by more than €1 million in expert fees.

Dr Bonnici acknowledged that expenses linked to court experts could never be anticipated, and varied from one year to the next depending on the needs that arose.

The figures show that the net expense (by deducting payments inherited from the previous year and adding bills transferred to the next) increased by €177,000 between 2011 and 2012.

Court experts are appointed by the judiciary to collect information on their behalf and their reports are crucial to the conclusion of cases.

The judiciary has absolute discretion in the appointment of experts but the system has come in for scathing criticism by the Chamber of Advocates.

Last month, the chamber described the current set up as a “racket” that was difficult to penetrate since appointments depended on the familiarity of experts with magistrates and police inspectors.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com