Construction industry needs criminal procedures to be brought in line, Planning Commissioner says

The Planning Commissioner has called for deterrents for the construction industry in the form of criminal procedures, fines and direction actions to restore discipline in the sector.

Perit Alan Saliba, the Environment and Planning Commissioner said that, although he had made proposals to the authorities in June last year to voice citizens’ concerns and restore the construction sector’s safety, the building collapse which took the like of Miriam Pace a few weeks ago prompted him to call for “more drastic measures”.

The measures were called for in a set of recommendations sent to Prime Minister Robert Abela and to the pane of experts which is reviewing the rules concerning excavation works on the island, the Commissioner said in a press statement on Friday.

“Last year, the Commissioner was prompted to recommend adequate criminal measures to act as an effective deterrent against who abuses with this legal obligation,” Saliba said. 

“Although the Civil Courts decisions in this regard are very consistent and straightforward in the sense that calls to prohibit similar excavations and for the reinstatement of the same when excavations have already been done are generally always upheld, expecting the common citizen to leave his serene routine at home when heavy machinery start closing in and instead embark on complex and expensive legal procedures is too much to ask for.”

In his recommendations, the Commissioner also said that the current practice whereby the developers’ architects also takes control of the neighbours’ property or public property (be it a common party-wall or a real existing right on the foundations1) needs to be inverted, so that the neighbours’ architect takes full control on what can and cannot be done with the neighbours’ property.

The Commissioner said that it would be then it for the Building Construction Authority (BCA) to decide any disputes between the two sets of advice, according to law.

Saliba’s recommendations also include a case history of building collapses in Malta, which show that from 1996 to 2004, three such incidents occurred. In April 2000 in Cathedral Street, Sliema, a collapse left one person dead, while another collapse in June 2004 in Ramon Perellos Street in St Paul’s Bay led to two fatalities.

There were no other collapses for 14 years, until April 2018, from which points seven incidents happened, one of which, in March 2020, left Pace, a wife and mother of two, dead.

The following is a summary of recommendations the Commissioner sent to the Prime Minister:

1. Immediate setting up of the Building Construction Authority fully equipped with resources in proportion with the size of the construction industry. 2. Deterrents through criminal procedures, fines and direct actions to restore discipline in the industry

3. Licensing and accredited courses for all suppliers and operators in the field supplemented by adequate building codes

4. Imposition on developers to employ only licensed operators under a strict subcontracting regime

5. Enforcement action on issues related to the BCA, OHSA and PA mustered under the one roof of the Ministry for Law Enforcement

6. Authority to recognise and give priority to neighbours’ architect advice

7. Authority to assist neighbours with professional and legal advice

8. Shifting construction related responsibilities from the Planning Authority to the Building Construction Authority thus also abetting the same Planning Process

9. Consider changing certain Planning Policies that are instigating added risks in construction sites.