A magisterial inquiry into a fatal building collapse has called out state authorities for simply “rubber-stamping” paperwork submitted prior to excavation works.

In a 30-page report, Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit urged the government to begin a heavy recruitment drive at state authorities, such as the Building Regulations Office and the Building and Construction Authority, to engage more qualified technical people.

They would then thoroughly assess documents submitted to them by architects and others involved in the sector prior to the commencement of works, rather than simply “rubber-stamping”.

It is equally important, the magistrate went on to say, to ensure there are enough enforcement officials to see that work at the demolition, excavation and construction phase was being done by the book.

The inquiry was ordered after Miriam Pace, a 54-year-old mother-of-two, was buried alive beneath the rubble of her own home when it caved in on March 2 last year.

A post-mortem examination established that the victim suffered multiple broken bones, blunt force trauma to the skull and had died as a result of asphyxia due to the dust and rubble that engulfed her. 

Four people involved in a construction project next door to the Pace family home have been charged with involuntarily homicide, on the back of the inquiry findings. 

The Pace family has been calling for a public inquiry that would, among other things, look into whether the state failed to prevent her death.

However, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Monday he was ruling out such an inquiry because he did not want it to be used to undermine the criminal cases against the accused. 

Magistrate Stafrace Zammit’s inquiry did not weigh into the state’s possible failures but calls for the vetting of documents submitted prior to excavation and for the checks on excavation sites to be stepped up. 

The architect and an unqualified expert

The magistrate concluded that Roderick Camilleri, the project’s architect, had submitted a vague method statement to the building and construction agency.

Furthermore, the architect had not adhered to the building rules on avoiding damage to third party property.

No training on the type of excavation the labourer was carrying out

He could have also committed perjury when he said he had discussed his method statement with a technical expert and the contractor, the magisterial inquiry establishing that this had not been the case.

The magistrate reported that shortcomings were also found in the way in which the architect’s condition report had been drawn up. She noted that the architect had commissioned a certain Ishmael Sciberras who had testified that he had extensive experience but was nonetheless not qualified to carry out the work. 

This resulted in Sciberras failing to properly identify how the dividing wall between the site and the Pace home was structured. Issues that could have been identified were not, the magistrate said.

While the site technical officer and the contractor also bore some responsibility for these breaches, the law made it clear that the architect was to shoulder the responsibility for executing the project. 

The site technical officer

The magistrate’s report said that architect Anthony Mangion, the project’s STO, also had some share of the blame. 

The inquiry found that Mangion was “inexistent” during the demolition and excavation phase of the project. 

His absence, the report said, flew in the face of legislation introduced to ensure STOs carried out certain checks.

Indeed, the magistrate remarked, had Mangion been regularly present on site  he would have noticed that the method statement was not being properly implemented and certain works would not have gone ahead.

Unfortunately, the report said, this was not how things panned out.

The contractor

Contractor Ludwig Dimech also appeared to be partly responsible for the tragedy. The inquiry report said that he was not vigilant enough during the demolition and excavation process.

In particular, Dimech had not given clear instructions on how works were to be carried out on the wall separating the Pace family home from the excavation site. 

He had also appeared to have lied under oath when he told the inquiring magistrate that he had been present at the site for most of the day when the building collapsed.

Other testimony collected by the magistrate indicated that he had only been there for a short while, having briefly tried out the excavation machinery on the opposite side of the site and then left. 

The labourer

The magistrate said labourer Nicholas Spiteri had been “entirely negligent” when he had used heavy excavation machinery to get the job over and done with.

It was this that was the main cause of the collapse, the magistrate concluded. 

It turns out that Spiteri had not received any training on the type of excavation he was carrying out.

The magistrate called for this to be stopped and for construction workers to be considered skilled workers who require qualifications to get a job on a building site.