Amendments to the building and construction reform will be published on Monday, adding engineers graduated from MCAST and university to the list of professionals able to certify demolition and excavation works. 

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg said that the amendment had followed exhaustive talks with the chamber of architects Kamra tal-Periti, which had raised concerns about architects being the only ones able to act as new site technical officers. 

Under the new rules, published earlier this year, excavation and construction works can only be given the green light after a site technical officer has certified that this would not pose a risk to third party properties. 

Dr Borg said the bulk of the talks on this reform had been with the KTP, who had said it was clear from the get-go that there were not enough architects to film this new role. 

“The KTP had concerns, and had wanted changes, and it is important to point out that architects had been pointing all of this out for years, since at least 2007,” he said. 

Engineers graduated from Mcast would now be able to fill this new role. 

KTP, Dr Borg said, would be passing on a list of architects willing to act as site technical officers, to the authorities. 

The government had already been handed information on engineers graduated from Mcast, willing to take on the role of site technical officers. 

There were other issues that would need to be discussed with the chamber in the coming weeks, such as the setting up of a new authority for the building sector - which he hoped would be up and running within a year. 

Dr Borg also said he wanted to bring a detailed reform drafted by the KTP to parliament after the summer recess. 

This reform seeks to overhaul the rules governing the work of architects, and building safety. 

Has the building reform made a difference?

Dr Borg said that since announcing the reform, some 2,500 sites had made use of the new regulations in “some way or another”. 

He added that the absolute majority were now following new rules. 

This showed the law had been understood by stakeholders and was being used in practice. 

Asked if there were still a number of sites which were not using the new rules, Dr Borg said that there were. 

However, he expected this to be whittled down once the KTP lifted directives to its members and instructed architects to start following the new rules. 

Dr Borg said more than 1,000 declarations that excavation and demolition works posed no risk to neighboring properties had also been received. 

The “hundreds” of new method statements for demolition and excavation works received, he said, showed that the “culture” of professionals in the sector was finally changing. 

In the past, some professionals would hand in vague method statements that were reporting “cut and paste” methodology details. 

Today, these same professionals were visiting sites and handing in detailed reports. 

“I don’t want to paint everyone with the same brush. There are those professionals who have always been very rigorous, but we have seen a positive shift here,” he said. 

Dr Borg said some 78 method statements were handed in for building works, describing it as a “relatively small number”, but a positive step.