The Gozo courthouse will be brought in line with Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) recommendations by the end of the month, according to the Justice Ministry.
The ministry said the remaining four recommendations, from an original list of 16, were in the process of being implemented and will be concluded by the end of June.
Times of Malta reported last week how two senior government officials are due to appear in court later this month after criminal charges were issued against them over their failure to ensure minimum health and safety standards at the Gozo courthouse.
Gozo Courts director general Mary Debono Borg, 59, of Fontana, and Court Services Agency chief executive Eunice Maria Grech Fiorini, 42, of Tarxien, are to be charged – in their personal capacity – over multiple failures.
The charges were issued after an OHSA audit had found multiple shortcomings. Borg is the mother of Nationalist MP, Alex Borg.
They will be charged with failing to ensure health and safety standards are upheld at the courthouse in order to avoid any injury or death of employees and anyone attending court sessions.
A spokesperson for the Justice Ministry said the recommendations left include installation of emergency signage, fire detectors and alarm systems, the installation of adequate ventilation especially in enclosed areas and a training session for employees on proper handling of loads and the risk of handling if loads are not carried out correctly. This session will be held on Monday.
Failure to implement the OHSA recommendations resulted in charges against Borg and Grech Fiorini.
It is not known what will happen to the case once the remaining recommendations are implemented.
The OHSA audit had been ordered by Magistrate Joe Mifsud after an incident took place outside the court rooms. When the magistrate asked for video footage, he was informed there was no CCTV.
Aside from the OHSA report, the Gozo law courts, situated in a crammed old building in Victoria, have been faulted by the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability, in another audit.
The commission concluded that the courts were not only vertically inaccessible, with stairs being the only way to get from the groundfloor to the upper levels where the courtrooms are located, but also failed the horizontal test because the different floors have several levels.
The commission made a list of recommendations which it hoped would deliver a “barrier-free court system” in a building that would be fully accessible and not create any health hazard.