Seven out of 10 builders aiming to obtain their licence have failed their theory test, despite being in the field for over 40 years. Those who failed have no option for a resit and must wait months before attempting again.
The exams were revamped by the Building and Construction Authority, while the builders’ lobby stated that most of the masons had never sat for an exam throughout their life and were confused by the new multiple-choice format.
It’s a sad debacle for the authority, which, since its inception, has morphed into a failure. One of its chairpersons, architect Maria Schembri Grima, was fired in the wake of a dangerous demolition in Birkirkara, with her professional conflict of interest resulting in a breach of safety laws she was bound to prevent.
Following the outcome of the inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia’s death, CEO Jesmond Muscat was relieved of his role; before that, Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, who had kick-started a number of long-overdue reforms, was inexplicably reshuffled to Lands.
The responsibility for the construction reform now falls onto Justice Minister Jonathan Attard.
So far, the authority has proven ineffective, if not unwilling, to enforce health and safety regulations around the thousands of building sites active on our islands. This results in death and injuries for workers and residents alike, and this is also down to poor legislation riddled with loopholes, exemptions, and grey areas in the competences of the various institutions.
The results of the licence exams may not come as a shock to many, seeing that the sector runs on a tragic mix of speed and deregulation; an exam like this, and the subsequent results, may put another hold to another proposed reform, especially as those who failed the exam are unlikely to stop practising their trade.
The construction sector has no interest in being regulated, especially if it comes at a cost to its operations.
This exam is not the biggest upset in the reforms so far, especially with concerns among various stakeholders at the second attempt to create a register of contractors.
But there are questions on the very foundations of the BCA, even if we forget the fact that its own premises had to be shut down after debris started falling from its roofs.
The authority was being debated in parliament a year after Miriam Pace’s death, but the bill went only as far as proposing the setting up of the authority, without giving it a legal framework to administer.
Subsequent reforms such as the contractors’ registry are being passed through legal notices, sometimes without adequate debate in parliament.
In more than one case, the manner in which they are written has incensed the Chamber of Architects and on rarer occasions, the Malta Developers’ Association.
The BCA has had minimal impact in the protection of health and safety laws in Malta but has also done little in a legislative sense.
A general look at the scenario shows that no major legislation has been proposed, approved and put into action: the contractors’ registry, for example, will only come into being in January 2025, more than a year since its announcement.
Similarly, there has been no movement with regard to the Building Codes, or the review of all the laws governing construction started by Zrinzo Azzopardi in a bid to understand where the loopholes and grey areas of the sector can be found.
The construction sector is in dire need of reform, as the numbers of deaths and injuries on building sites can demonstrate. But not much can be expected, seeing that the BCA has been built on weak foundations, and has little interest to enforce the law.