Sofia public inquiry | Mother demands justice from industry driven by greed and lack of rules

The mother of 19-year-old construction victim Jean Paul Sofia today made an impassioned plea for justice from a construction industry she said was driven by greed and enabled by deregulation. 

Isabelle Bonnici was almost in tears as she told the panel presiding over the public inquiry prompted by the death her son in the Corradino construction collapse, that she would never see her son marry. 

“That day, my life was turned upside down,” Bonnici said, reading from a prepared statement, recounting how her son, an AC technician, had been called on site of the soon-to-collapse building to deliver a box of tools. He had signed off her last text message to her, a few moments before, with ‘I love you’. 

The public inquiry was held at the Maltese law courts, with proceedings presided by a panel that is led by Judge emeritus Joseph Zammit McKeon, the national ombudsman. Lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia, Eve Borg Costanzi, and Matthew Cutajar represented the Sofia family – John Sofia and Isabelle Bonnici; State Advocate Chris Soler was also present. 

Bonnici decried her having to wait 16 hours before learning that her son, first misreported to have been alive and in hospital, had indeed died. “Is 16 hours an acceptable time-frame for my son to have been extracted from the rubble? Are emergency services sufficiently trained for such situations?”  

“I couldn’t bear to watch or stay at the site... I prayed unceasingly. Was he cold? Was he calling for me? Was he in pain? He was my only son. He had a life, a girlfriend, a future.”  

The anguish clear in her voice, Isabelle Bonnici said the greed for money, the lack of regulation in the industry, had led to the death of her son. “I want there to be hope for the workers in this sector. My son left the industry and moved into air conditioning, only to be sent back.” 

“I want the tears that I wept to become a river of hope,” she says. “I am expecting justice... to make the industry safer and for the number of workplace deaths to become fewer every year.” 

She listed a litany of questions as to whether Malta Enterprise was involved in the processing of the application; whether proper due diligence carried out on the developers; how well trained the workers on the building site were; what are the fast-track applications’ criteria; were there any political connections involved in the issuance of the permit; who had checked whether the health and safety officers were present. 

“Building licences are issued upon the payment of the fee with no checks on training, competence or health, she suggested,” she told Judge Zammit McKeon, imploring the board to do more than scratch the surface of the problem. “I will not see my son marry,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “I hope that his death with lead to meaningful change.”  

Judge Zammit McKeon thanked her for her testimony, the first time she had done so in a court setting. 

Ministers testify 

The next two witnesses were planning minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and finance minister Clyde Caruana. 

Giving a breakdown of recent developments in the Building and Construction Authority’s establishment, Zrinzo Azzopardi was asked whether he had addressed the evident increase in construction deaths. 

“The law is clear on who bears responsibility for health and safety at the workplace. The OHSA continued to carried out inspections. A White Paper was prompted by the need to have more sustained measures for enforcement... The experience over the past 20 years have given an opportunity for strengthening the sector. We shouldn’t look only from the statistical point of view. Every death is a tragedy irrespective of percentages.” 

A draft law will be tabled in parliament later this year aimed at strengthening this sector, the minister says. 

Zrinzo Azzopardi said the BCA is regulated by two bits of subsidiary legislation: one dealing with third parties and the other with site management. In 2019 a legal notice was published stating that wherever a person was going to carry out a project that might impact an adjacent property, a method statement must be submitted, otherwise works cannot begin. 

But the law envisages an exemption from certain processes when third parties are involved, the minister says. From the enforcement side, these clearances must be followed up and site visits must be carried out. This is how the BCA is involved in the process.  

The minister said just 20 inspectors carry out enforcement around Malta and Gozo. 

Under questioning by lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia, the minister said there were no minutes taken of ministerial meetings with the authorities’ CEOs. He also said no records are kept of any political direction to authorities under his remit. “These discussions are continuous, weekly!” the minister replied. “Which you only know about,” Comodini Cachia quips. 

Finance minister Clyde Caruana then took the stand, explaining how government ministries present their case to his ministry when demanding budgetary allocations. If say, an authority requires €1 million for manpower, and he can only provide €800,000, it is up to the authority to allocate the cash. 

Therese Comodini Cachia asked if any documentation exists on requests for budgetary subventions. “I need to see whether this information has been retained or not. The requests are worked out by the administration of the civil service, so I need to check. To be clear, the email is not sent directly to me on my email address, but to the directorate,” Caruana said. 

Commodini Cachia asked whether it is a practice adopted in his ministry that emails are erased. Caruana did not know.

“If I am the OHSA and decide I need 20 more employees. How does this happen?” she asked.

“Through a request for variation in the budget. In such circumstances, the authority speaks to its ministry, which then comes to us. We ask whether it has funds that can be redirected if the request makes sense. It is not the first or last time that additional funds are allocated to the ministry,” Caruana replied. 

11:00 We have come to the end of this live-blog for today. The first session of the Sofia inquiry heard Jean Paul Sofia's mother Isabelle Bonnici, as well as minister for planning Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, and finance minister Clyde Caruana. The sessions are to continue next week. Matthew Vella

10:59 Caruana asks for a request in writing detailing exactly what is required from his ministry. He steps off the stand. Matthew Vella

10:56 Therese Commodini Cachia: “So to prepare the budget, the minister requests a sum of money based on accounting performed by the authorities within his remit. That sum is sometimes debated and sometimes changed.” She asks for documentation of this process.

CC: “I need to see whether this information has been retained or not. The requests are worked out by the administration of the civil service, so I need to check. To be clear, the email is not sent directly to me on my email address, but to the directorate.”

Commodini Cachia asks whether it is a practice adopted in his ministry that emails are erased. Caruana does not know.

TCC: “If I am the OHSA and decide I need 20 more employees. How does this happen?”

CC: “Through a request for variation in the budget. In such circumstances, the authority speaks to its ministry, which then comes to us. We ask whether it has funds that can be redirected if the request makes sense. It is not the first or last time that additional funds are allocated to the ministry.”

TCC says documentation relating to this will also be required, asking for the allocations for training, besides recruitment. Matthew Vella

10:47 Caruana explains that ministries must convince his ministry that their budget demands are feasible and sustainable. If say an authority requires €1 million for manpower, and he can only provide €800,000, it is up to the authority to allocate the cash. The PA for example is self-sufficient because it has its own system of funding; the growing workload of the BCA has necessitated a substantial increase in budget, but he says it is up to the authority to deploy its people. Matthew Vella

10:43 Finance minister Clyde Caruana takes the stand. Under his remit falls budgeting for the various authorities as finance minister. He explains how an analysis is carried out of all ministries’ business plans, to makee predictions for the coming years, from which the budgetary requirements are extracted. These requests are always well in excess of the available government budget, Caruana says. After the budget is allocated, around 15 August, bilateral meetings are held with every ministry to inform them of how much they have been allocated and discuss them. Matthew Vella

10:41 Main takeaway here: no mandatory minuting of political direction given by ministers to authorities during discussions. Matthew Vella

10:40 Under questioning by lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia, the minister says there are no minutes taken of ministerial meetings with the authorities’ CEOs. He also says no records are kept of any political direction to authorities under his remit. “These discussions are continuous, weekly!” the minister replies. “Which you only know about,” Comodini Cachia quips. Matthew Vella

10:29 Judge: “This leads me to another question. Are you ensuring this insurance cover is drafted in such a way that contractual shortcomings between the contractor and others are covered?”

SZA: “It is being discussed.”

Cassar interjects, saying that at the moment it’s “a sieve.” He suggests that it would reassure insurers if better drafted. SZA: “Insurance is a fall-back, in case something happens.” Judge draws a parallel with motor vehicle insurance: as this is compulsory, when a driver breaches a contractual clause in his cover, you can’t wave this in the face of the third party and say he’s not covered. “I think this line should be followed.” The minister says that the discussion is ongoing and the main thrust should be reducing and mitigating risks and that insurance is of secondary importance. Matthew Vella

10:24 After the BCA was set up, the PA was more focused on planning issues; when it comes to compliance, it is all against the background of the issued permits. In the aftermath of the Sofia death, the boards of these authorities had not convened to discuss the matter.

Architect Mario Cassar asks how a simple DNO (development notification order) can lead to major permits bypassing the traditional PA funnel.

SZA: “Back in the day a decision was taken where factories being built on industrial land, instead of a full development permit, could be issued a DNO. Although consultations take place with entities besides the PA, this process costs much less and permits are issued much quicker, approved by one member of the board.”

Minister says BCA role is distinct. Through the new LN, the contractor is now obliged to have insurance cover in place for all aspects detailed in the law. Matthew Vella

10:12 Judge turns to the BCA, the Building and Construction Authority. “What exactly is it supposed to do in relevance to people’s lives?”

SZA: “Today the BCA is regulated by two bits of subsidiary legislation: one dealing with third parties and the other with site management. In 2019 a legal notice was published stating that wherever a person was going to carry out a project that might impact an adjacent property, a method statement must be submitted... Method statements, insurance and other things like stone testing must be carried out before the authority gives clearance, otherwise works cannot begin.”

The law envisages an exemption from certain processes when third parties are involved, the minister says. From the enforcement side, these clearances must be followed up and site visits must be carried out. This is how the BCA is involved in the process.

Judge: “How many people are involved in enforcement?”

SZA: “To my knowledge they have recently doubled... around 20 (for all Malta and Gozo).” He says there are plans to continue increase staff complement.

Judge: “But are you happy to increase bureaucracy, possibly at the cost of on-the-ground inspections?”

SZA: “The word bureaucracy scares me. The process must be as streamlined as possible, but the focus must be on safety.”

Matthew Vella

10:04 Judge: “When you became minister, did you look into the numbers of incidents at the workplace?”

SZA refers to a White Paper from April 2023 on the OHSA’s legal framework.

Judge: “The point is this. It is pointless to deny that the number of incidents and injuries at the workplace has increased. There may be many reasons for this... population increase, construction boom. How was this addressed from your end?”

SZA: “The law is clear on who bears responsibility for health and safety at the workplace. The authority continued to carried out inspections. The White Paper was prompted by the need to have more sustained measures for enforcement... The experience over the past 20 years have given an opportunity for strengthening the sector. We shouldn’t look only from the statistical point of view. Every death is a tragedy irrespective of percentages.” Matthew Vella

09:58 The present chairman of the OHSA, David Xuereb, was already chairman at the minister’s appointment. OHSA chief executive Mark Gauci has been at the helm of the OHSA since its creation, 24 years ago. Matthew Vella

09:57 Judge Zammit McKeon asks about the OHSA’s financing. As an independent authority its accounts are scrutinised by the House of Representatives. Every ministry requests a budget for its authorities from the finance ministry, based on projections. Zrinzo Azzopardi is asked whether he can dictate how this budget is spent: “There are some constraints... salaries make up the largest part.” He adds that it is the OHSA that requests the manpower level it requires from the ministry. Matthew Vella

09:50 The judge asks what direction of policy he gave to the authorities under his remit. “In general, over the past year and a half as minister, at the PA we had to make some changes through legal notices about terms of reference, public consultation and publication of notices.”

“At the BCA a lot of work was done. In recent months we introduced new procedures... including a licence for builders. At OHSA, an important change was our revision of legal notices for project supervisors. The authority strengthened its outreach activities aimed at foreign workers with regards to training and safety. When BCA was created in 2022, a number of its powers were originally vested in the PA. These had to be transferred to the BCA.” Matthew Vella

09:46 Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi now takes the stand. He was appointed minister for Public Works and Planning on 30 March 2022. Within his remit fall the section of the civil service that deals with planning, as well as the Planning Authority, the BCA and the OHSA. Matthew Vella

09:38 Bonnici continues: “Building licences are issued upon the payment of the fee with no checks on training, competence or health, she suggested.”

“Is 16 hours an acceptable time-frame for my son to have been extracted from the rubble? Are emergency services sufficiently trained for such situations?”

She said she wants to assure herself that everything possible was done to try and save her son, properly. “I’m not interested in the enforcement of laws, I want to know if anything could have been done better.”

She implored the board to do more than scratch the surface of the problem, expressing a hope that this will save lives in future. “I will not see my son marry,” she says, her voice breaking with emotion. “I hope that his death with lead to meaningful change.”

Judge Zammit McKeon thanks her for her testimony., the first time she had done so in a court setting. Matthew Vella

09:33 “I have many questions. Was Malta Enterprise involved in the processing of the application? Was proper due diligence carried out on the developers? How well trained are workers on building sites? What are the fast-track applications’ criteria? Were there any political connections involved? Who checked whether the health and safety officers were present?” Matthew Vella

09:31 The anguish clear in her voice, Isabelle Bonnici said the greed for money, the lack of regulation in the industry, had led to the death of her son. “I want there to be hope for the workers in this sector. My son left the industry and moved into air conditioning, only to be sent back.”

“I want the tears that I wept to become a river of hope,” she says. “I am expecting justice... to make the industry safer and for the number of workplace deaths to become fewer every year.”

Matthew Vella

09:28 Isabelle Bonnici continues.

It was soon confirmed that her son was still under the rubble. “I couldn’t bear to watch or stay at the site... I prayed unceasingly. Was he cold? Was he calling for me? Was he in pain?”

There were a lot of people present, mostly rescue workers. She tried to ask them whether they had found anyone alive after so long and was told not to give up hope.

16 hours into the search she was told that he was – probably - dead. “He was my only son. He had a life, a girlfriend, a future.”

Matthew Vella

09:26 MaltaToday Executive Editor Kurt Sansone and senior journalist James Debono speak about the ongoing Sofia public inquiry in this podcast here. Matthew Vella

09:25 “That day, my life was turned upside down.” Young Jean Paul signed off his last message to her with “I love you,” she says.

When she was told about his possible involvement in the collapse, she asked why he had been there. As an AC technician, his boss, Matthew Schembri, had sent him to deliver some tools.

The first information she received was reassuring – her son was alive and in hospital, she was told, but when she arrived at the emergency department nobody knew about him being there.

Matthew Vella

09:23 Jean Paul Sofia’s mother, Isabelle Bonnici, summonsed by the Board to testify, takes the stand. She reads from a prepared statement. Matthew Vella

09:22 Said, sated for now, leaves the courtroom. Matthew Vella

09:18 And now this: A man who is facing criminal charges related to extreme porn (story here), Publius Said, addresses the judge telling him that he wants to testify. The judge tells him that he will not muzzle anyone, but that if he wants to testify he must remain outside the courtroom. Said goes on a loud, angry rant about evidence being tampered with. The judge invites him to send an email, but Said complains that he has no electronic internet address. His voice begins to quaver. Said’s connection to the case, if any, is unclear. Matthew Vella

09:17 The first of today’s three witness will be Sofia’s mother Isabelle Bonnici. She will be followed by planning minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and finance minister Clyde Caruana. Before she takes the stand, the judge clarifies to the State Advocate that she will be allowed to remain in the courtroom after concluding her testimony. Matthew Vella

09:12 Zammit Mackeon said this was a good start, remarking that the aims of the public inquiry was ensuring judgment is done, and the “search for the truth in its entirety.” The State Advocate’s request was upheld. The judge now proceeds to read the terms of reference. Matthew Vella

09:08 Commodini Cachia said the family had no objection to the request, but noted that the SA is not an adversary, but both were present amicus curiae. She said she expected to be in agreement with the State Attorney’s submissions for the most part. Matthew Vella

09:06 The Board said it wanted to hear what the other party had to say about it. Matthew Vella

09:06 Zammit McKeon notes that the State Advocate filed an application on 7 August asking to be allowed to participate in the proceedings. The next day, the judge issued a decree, sent by email from and email address set up by the Board, but Commodini Cachia informed the Board that she had not received it. Matthew Vella

09:05 The panel has just entered the courtroom led by Judge emeritus Joseph Zammit McKeon. Jean Paul Sofia’s parents John and Isabel are seated next to their lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia, Eve Borg Costanzi and Matthew Cutajar. State Advocate Chris Soler is also present, together with lawyer Anthony Borg from his office. Matthew Vella

09:05 We are live from Hall 22 of the Law Courts, awaiting the start of the public inquiry into the death of 19-year-old Jean Paul Sofia at a construction site in Corradino last December. Matthew Vella

08:59 Welcome to this live blog from the Maltese law courts, where MaltaToday senior court reporter Matthew Agius is following proceedings from the first session of the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry. Matthew Vella

The public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia starts today, Thursday.

The public inquiry board will be led by Ombudsman Joseph Zammit McKeon, who will be supported by Auditor General Charles Deguara and court expert Mario Cassar.

Sofia was killed in a construction site accident last December, after a three-storey building he was working at collapsed during construction works. Five men - three Albanian, a Maltese and a Bosnian were rescued by members of the Civil Protection Department.

The saga has unfolded against a backdrop of reluctance from the Labour government to comply to calls for a comprehensive public inquiry into the collapse of a Corradino structure that claimed the live of 19-year-old worker Jean Paul Sofia.

Prime Minister Robert Abela, initially advocating for a clear demarcation between a magisterial inquiry and a public inquiry, encountered fervent resistance from the victim's mother, Isabelle Bonnici.

Bonnici's unyielding campaign for justice gained momentum over time, garnering widespread national support and putting immense pressure on the government to reconsider its stance.

In an eventual U-turn, the PM yielded to calls for a public inquiry, succumbing to the demands of the family and NGOs in the aftermath of a Labour parliamentary vote against a motion by the Opposition for a public inquiry.

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