A former president of the Chamber of Architects has given a shocking assessment of the current state of play in construction sites and warned that some of the proposed rule changes will possibly make the situation worse.

Christopher Mintoff, writing in Times of Malta’s opinion pages, says that when clients and their architects need to find a contractor, the only legally recognised criteria they have with which to recognise a qualified individual from a foolhardy opportunist is the mason’s licence. 

But it has been impossible to check who has a valid mason’s licence or not, “and many builders just used other people’s credentials or forged them.”

He was writing in the wake of three incidents where adjacent buildings to construction sites were destroyed or badly damaged.

The first time in decades that a list of licensed masons was published was last Friday, while 400 architects were attending an extraordinary general meeting discussing this very topic. 

“Therefore, besides the mason, no other person on a construction site – Malta’s most dangerous workplaces – needs any credentials.  These include demolition contractors, crane operators, steel workers, mason’s assistants, concrete pourers, foreman, scaffolding erectors, anyone using this scaffolding, drivers, and of course the excavators themselves.”

If anyone fancied offering excavation services, all he needed to do was invest in machinery (second-hand vehicles from Sicily) and start looking for a first job. That’s it.

With all these possible amateurs on our construction sites, the only surprise from the recent disasters is that they don’t happen more often

“With all these possible amateurs on our construction sites, the only surprise from the recent disasters is that they don’t happen more often.”

But is it not the architect who should be responsible to ensure the construction is safe, many people ask.

Mr Mintoff replies that the architect is engaged to design a structure (permanent works) and to make sure that once it has been completed, it would be safe for its intended use by its users and safe for third parties. 

During construction, his responsibility is to make his instructions clear and to carry out spot checks to make sure they are being followed. 

“The method by which the structure is constructed (temporary works) is the responsibility of the contractor who chooses people in his employ for their skills. He is responsible for safety, instructions and other site logistics.” 

A woman was injured at the beginning of June when her Mellieħa building collapsed.

Proposed new government regulations make provision for a site manager, whose job it will be to ensure that the site is operating as it should be and that any technical issues are reported accordingly. 

Strangely, Mr Mintoff observes, there has been talk that if a contractor is unable to find someone qualified enough for the role, then the role of the site manager (for temporary works) is automatically bestowed on the architect who designed the permanent works. 

“This is illogical. Here the contractor is admitting that all his workforce is incompetent for the task and is not ready to shoulder his legal responsibilities. In that case we shouldn’t be finding him a backup, we should be sending him packing. 

“Giving him a replacement to his own responsibility will make him more indifferent to the consequences of his actions. Any law that makes the design perit automatically act as the site manager, responsible for workers he didn’t employ, will instantly make all those construction sites much less safe.

“Even the best composer in the world cannot ensure that an orchestra of monkeys will play a fine tune.”

The construction industry must start learning from its mistakes, Mr Mintoff concludes. “If the law passes without demanding minimum training for anyone on site, and a future register of who is qualified for what tasks, we’ll be here once again in no time and none the wiser.”