Health and safety officer was on site

The health and safety officer of the company of which Gunner Matthew Psaila formed part was present at Chadwick Lakes during the military training exercise that led to the young soldier's death.

This was confirmed by the Office of the Prime Minister.

The young soldier, who would have turned 20 last week, died three days after being pulled out of Chadwick Lakes unconscious during a training exercise on Friday, February13. It is thought he had spent about 10 minutes submerged.

The incident raised questions on whether Gunner Psaila should have been allowed to go on with the exercise or whether he should have been given special attention since he was unable to swim.

An internal probe and a magisterial inquiry were launched straight after the incident. Then, on Monday, the Prime Minister unexpectedly announced a third probe after questions were raised about the internal investigation being carried out by the army.

Over the weekend, the Labour media and the General Workers; Union's weekly It-Torċa reported that the investigation was being handled by an officer who was responsible for the army's overall health and safety and he might, therefore, have a conflict of interest.

However, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said that each regiment had its own health and safety officer and the officer at the helm of the army's inquiry was tasked with coordinating matters with such officers. Hence, the officer heading the inquiry was not directly involved in the incident.

The internal inquiry was looking into the sequence of events, all circumstances leading to the incident and whether safety procedures were observed at all times during the training session, the spokesman said.

Asked whether the health and safety officer of Gunner Psaila's company, the C (Special Duties) Company, was being investigated, the spokesman said: "It is up to the magistrate, the AFM internal board of inquiry and the independent inquiry board to determine what to investigate".

The spokesman said the company's safety officer was on site during the exercise.

When questioned about the need for a third inquiry, the government spokesman said the independent inquiry called by the Prime Minister would look into all aspects of the C (Special Duties) Company.

The new inquiry would examine all aspects of the operation of the company, which includes both the training and procedural aspects.

It would look into the training provided and its command processes; the training programmes and ancillary issues with the aim of determining whether such training was reasonable; all the circumstances relating to the fatal incident and make recommendations it deemed appropriate in light of the conclusions it reached.