A fifth of the recommendations from the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry have been fully implemented, with three-quarters of them still in the works, three ministers announced on Monday.

The inquiry, which concluded early last year, found the sate responsible for the death of the 20-year-old worker killed when a building under construction at the edge of Corradino Industrial Estate collapsed.

Following the inquiry’s conclusion, the government set up committee to implement the report’s 39 recommendations. The recommendations included changes to how government land is allocated, how builders are trained and licenced, and greater surveillance of workplace safety.

One year on, three of the ministers on the committee – Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri and Planning Minister Clint Camilleri, together with OPM chief of staff Mark Mallia – gathered press to rattle off a list of recommendations they say have been taken onboard or will shortly be in force.

Mallia announced that 22% of the recommendations had been fully implemented, with a further 47% at an “advanced stage”.

Meanwhile, another 27% of the recommendations are in their early stages of implementation, he said, while 4% of the recommendations have remained untouched to date.

The recommendations that are still on the shelf include a promise to increase bank guarantees given to BCA to 20% of the architect’s value of the works and a suggestion for OHSA cases in court to be heard expeditiously by one magistrate.

Full development applications...but only when touching third party property

Projects on government land that is touching third-party property will now have to go through a full development process, Camilleri announced.

Previously, projects on government-owned industrial land, such as the fatal Corradino site, were being fast-tracked through a Development Notification Order (DNO).

But this won’t apply to projects on government land that are not touching third parties, Camilleri said.

These will instead be subject to a process similar to a DNO in which the Planning Authority will have a 30-day window to evaluate the development notification, with the PA board chair giving their blessing a week later.

Land allocation to focus on quality, not quantity of jobs

Indis will also be revising the way it allocates government land in the first place, Silvio Schembri said.

A new law set to be presented in the coming weeks will modify a clause in the law that allocates land according to whether a proposed project creates an adequate number of new jobs.

Instead, Schembri said, the new law will push to allocate land according to the “value-added” of the proposed project.

This will be determined by looking at the average wages of the workers to be employed and the value of the items being manufactured, Schembri said.

More scrutiny of construction site safety

The ministers pointed to other reforms carried out in recent months, from a new labour migration policy to the introduction of a new OHSA law.

And scrutiny of construction sites has been stepped up in recent months, Jonathan Attard said, with some 22,000 BCA and OHSA inspections throughout 2024.

BCA’s 12,750 inspections resulted in 670 fines and 240 orders for work to stop, he said, while OHSA issued 550 fines and stopped work on 331 sites last year.

And the government’s 138 construction helpline received over 21,000 calls in seven months, an average of 100 calls each day, Attard said. Most of them, “around 70%”, were requests for information about rules and regulations, while the remaining 30% were to report potential incidents, he added.