The collapse of a massive structure in Corradino last Saturday graphically, and tragically, symbolised the manner in which the powers-that-be have allowed safety standards in the construction industry to be sacrificed on mammon’s altar.

What caused the collapse and who was ultimately responsible have yet to be established by the experts. However, the horrible consequences are hard facts: a youth in the prime of his life perished, three were fighting for their lives and two required treatment in hospital.

Robert Abela was quick to state that all those involved need to shoulder their responsibilities. Does he realise that includes himself as prime minister, his cabinet colleagues and people they hand-picked to head entities tasked precisely with knocking much-needed sense into an industry mainly powered by greed?

Indeed, his first responsibility is to examine why the promises his government made along the years – to better regulate the industry and make it safer – have still to materialise or remain in the works. It’s an examination of conscience. He should then communicate that information to the public together with a well-defined plan of immediate action.

Though he does not elaborate, Abela insists a distinction must be made between the 2020 fatal building collapse in Santa Venera and this latest incident. They are both tragedies caused by wrong decisions or disregard for safety rules.

He says the country cannot tolerate a situation where anyone buys equipment and overnight calls himself a contractor. He knows this and so does the rest of the country. It is only the government that can put a stop to that.

If he truly believes reforms must be emphasised and laws enforced, the prime minister should exercise his vast power to ensure this happens… before tragedy strikes again.

Abela must be either living in denial, or being taken for a ride by those around him, when he says the government did its part. What the government has done is allow Johnny-come-lately contractors to continue shunning their responsibilities and handing them contracts too.

Just look at the record. In 2019, the government had said that, by the end of the year, only licensed contractors would be allowed to operate in the industry. A month before the Corradino building collapse, the planning minister ‘announced’ that building contractors would soon require a licence to operate that will specify the work they are authorised to do.

A similar pledge had been made in January 2021. That same month, an expert report into excavation and construction practices, commissioned after the Santa Venera fatality, was tabled in parliament.

It raised a number of issues: contractors should be regulated and registered, safeguards must be put in place, laws passed to ensure enforcement, and penalties imposed that would act as an effective deterrent, even criminalising certain breaches if need be. These are just a few examples.

The experts also warned that, in recent years, many had engaged in “a very dangerous activity” that has become so commonplace few dare to question it.

Was any effective action taken? Hardly. The figures of the dead and maimed speak for themselves. Only last May, the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission said that a “worker can never be reduced to a disposable cog in the wheel of a soulless economy”.

That is what is happening and will continue to happen so long as the construction industry remains to be built on sand.

Quoting Matthew 7:27 is appropriate here: “The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.”

How many more crashes?