The Building Regulations Office broke the law when it made the developers’ lobby responsible for compiling a list of registered contractors, the Office of the Ombudsman has ruled.
In a decision on Tuesday, Environment and Planning Commissioner Alan Saliba said the BRO should immediately remove all adverts in which it promoted its arrangement with the Malta Developers Association and start compiling its own list of contractors without external help.
The ruling came following a complaint filed with the Ombudsman’s Office on July 21 – just two weeks after Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg announced that a registry of contractors was being put together.
It was immediately unclear who would manage the registry. MDA chairman Sandro Chetcuti had told reporters that his organisation would be doing so, while Dr Borg had suggested that the BRO would be responsible.
A notice subsequently posted to the BRO website stated that the MDA would be producing the register “in agreement with the Bulding Regulation Office”.
A form to apply to register as a contractor was then posted to the MDA website and remained available at the time of writing. The register lists the name, phone number, email and specialisation of excavation and demolition contractors. It notes that contractors have until September 30 to register themselves.
The BRO - the entity responsible for overseeing and enforcing building regulations across the country - must currently get by on an annual budget of just €150,000.
Why was a complaint filed?
Filed by an unknown entity, the complaint to the Planning Ombudsman centred primarily on a legal provision stating that the minister can delegate BRO functions to “any other government department or body corporate established by law”.
“The MDA is NOT a body corporate established by law but an association set up by a group of developers,” the complainant argued.
They also noted that there was no information about what powers had been delegated to the MDA, which had been tasked with compiling the list without a competitive call for procurement.
“The authorities seem to have given up on their roles in providing regulatory oversight and allowed one private entity to gain dominant and exclusive access to sensitive information,” the complaint stated.
What did the Ombudsman find?
The Planning Ombudsman noted that it had no authority to investigate the MDA, and instead focused its investigation on the BRO’s role.
It dismissed the BRO’s argument that there was “nothing at law” prohibiting it from creating a register along with the MDA.
“The law does prohibit such initiative,” the Planning Ombudsman rebutted.
His office also waved aside the BRO’s reasoning that the register being compiled was a voluntary one that would serve as a preliminary stage to mandatory licensing of contractors.
Initiatives taken by NGOs could be useful, but they should “not be used to stall or delay the relevant government entity from keeping up to its obligations established by law,” the Ombudsman noted.
He recommended that the BRO should immediately remove all its adverts highlighting its collaboration with the MDA to create a register and issue corrections to this.
It should also compile its own register of contractors, the Ombudsman added.
Decisions by the Office of the Ombudsman are not binding and the office has no enforcement powers.
Register 'much needed' - MDA
MDA president Sandro Chetcuti told Times of Malta that the lobby group had been pushing for a register for more than two years.
"This is something which the country needs. We would have created one even if the BRO was not involved," he said.
"Our people have done a fantastic job putting this together, because it has not been easy," he added.