The Building Regulations Office had denied accusations by the Ombudsman that it was breaking the law by tasking the Malta Developers Association (MDA) with drawing up a list of contractors. 

In a decision this week, the Environment and Planning Commissioner Alan Saliba said the building regulator (BRO) should immediately remove all adverts in which it promoted its arrangement with the MDA and start compiling its own list of contractors without external help. 

The BRO said in a statement on Thursday it had not delegated any of its powers to the MDA, but had merely “invited” the MDA to draw up a list of contractors. 

It said in the statement that the actual registration of contractors would take place once the necessary regulations were in place. 

“The exercise being carried out by the MDA will help the government better understand how to go about these regulations.” 

According to the Building Regulation Act, passed in 2011, such a registry should have been maintained by the BRO. 

It only kick-started the process of compiling the registry in July following a spate of building collapses near construction sites. 

Moviment Graffitti had slammed the MDA’s role in drawing up this list of contractors as a publicity stunt that ultimately meant the powerful construction lobby was taking on the role of regulator. 

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg had said the MDA registry would serve as a directory for people to be able to assess a contractor’s experience.

The ultimate aim is for the BRO to license the contractors who appear on this directory, the minister said during a press conference in July. 

Video: Chris Sant Fournier

Asked to comment on Thursday, Dr Borg pointed towards the BRO’s past failures to draw up such a registry. 

“We said we are going to set up a registry of contractors by the end of the year. This registry will be set up and led by the BRO as required by law”, Dr Borg said. 

He said the exercise carried out by the MDA over the past weeks was to communicate what services contractors were offering. 

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