The Kamra tal-Periti has warned against an abrupt shutdown of construction sites in the event of a national lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Chamber president Simone Vella Lenicker said some sites may present a greater risk to public safety if they are abandoned without the necessary precautions being put in place to ensure structural stability. 

Moreover, she said, provision should be made for situations where properties require urgent maintenance or repairs during the lockdown period, should one be imposed. 

In a statement, the Chamber said its representatives had met Prime Minister Robert Abela and ministers responsible for construction and infrastructure on Friday, where it was said that there was no indication as yet that a lockdown is imminent.

During the meeting, the Chamber said, it had also raised the lack of adequate regulation in the construction industry, which it described as another "public safety crisis engulfing the country". 

Vella Lenicker said the government had recognised the need for change and committed to implementing, in August 2019, a number of reforms the Chamber had been calling for. 

These reforms included licensing and classification of contractors by the State to ensure they are qualified to shoulder their responsibilities, and give the public and consumers peace of mind and the consolidation of laws and regulations whose remit is scattered in 22 different public entities.

Proposed reforms also include the introduction of regulations covering the design of permanent works which would fall under the responsibility of architects and engineers, and the execution of temporary works which would fall under the responsibility of contractors, and amendments to the Periti Act.

Vella Lenicker welcomed the Prime Minister’s statement in Parliament that responsibilities on site should follow the Civil Code, which underscores the symmetric responsibilities of periti and contractors.

She called on the government to revise regulations which came into force last year, to eliminate ambiguities about site responsibilities the new rules brought about.

She said the government should also look at the issues besetting the industry in a holistic and comprehensive manner, including the "ill-advised obsession of the Planning Authority to insist on the indiscriminate provision of underground car parking". 

This, she said, was leading to the dangerous practice of excavating between party walls in narrow sites, as well as causing wider problems of waste management, traffic, air pollution and a rapid deterioration of the quality of life of Malta’s citizens.