Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1110343
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 APRIL 2019 OPINION Raphael Vassallo Government protecting developers at public expense? Gee, what a surprise... IF there is ever such a thing as an 'eye-opening moment' in one's life or career, my earli- est one would have happened around April 2000. I doubt many will remember the incident in any detail, so bear with me while I map it out. It happened in Cathedral Street, Sliema – a few doors down from the ironmongery formerly known as 'Balbi', and a few doors up from what was once 'Cathedral Library' – in April 2000: almost exactly 19 years ago to the day. I mention those geographi- cal details because that part of Sliema has a special sig- nificance to me, and to the few odd thousand who were raised within a half-mile radius of Stella Maris Church (inciden- tally, that also includes Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had writ- ten extensively about the case I am about to describe). But aside from any emotional attachment to my old local neighbourhood… there's also a practical reason to specify the exact whereabouts. Any- thing that happens between Balbi and Cathedral Library, can conceivably also hap- pen between Stella Maris and Fond Ghadir. In other words, it could have been MY house that collapsed because of a poorly-executed demolition job next door. It could have been MY mother (or grand- mother, or any of around a dozen aunts, uncles, cousins and their pets) buried under the rubble of her own home… For that, in a nutshell, was what happened. An 84-year- old woman was crushed by collapsing masonry in her own home… while having break- fast in her own kitchen, as it later emerged… because a subcontractor proceeded with the demolition job next door, despite complaints that 'cracks had appeared' on the walls and ceilings of the adjacent house. Even before any question of 'culpability' had arisen, I remember being profoundly shocked that such a thing could even happen, in my own hometown, in the year 2000. What emerged from the case was a total disregard for health and safety; a clear lack of proper construction site management and regulation; poor (or non-existent) enforce- ment of existing legislation; no proper channels for the public to elicit prompt replies to com- plaints… and all this, at a time when 'the Planning Authority' had already existed for almost 10 years. Indeed, for all the difference it made between 1992 and 2000, we may as well not have bothered pretending to have an industry regulator at all. None- theless, the Planning Authority did serve an immediately use- ful purpose. It instantly robbed developers (and especially gov- ernments) of any excuse they may have previously had to ignore such issues for decades. By 2000, all the legal instru- ments were in place to ensure that the construction operates within at least the most basic conditions of 'regulation'. In practice, however, everything proceeded after 1992 just as it had for eons: impunity for the powerful, zero regard for pretty much anyone else. But that was what occurred to me in the immediate aftermath of the 2000 Cathedral street tragedy… and in no way did it prepare me for what was com- ing next. I still haven't come to the 'culpability' part, remember? And there was a lot to assign culpability over, too. It wasn't just that an elderly lady was killed by what can only be described as gross criminal negligence; but other mem- bers of that household (one of whom was injured in the col- lapse) also lost their home and all their possessions. One of the victim's sons later recalled: "We clearly remember [Envi- ronment Minister George] Pul- licino coming to Sliema on the day of the incident, offering his sympathy and help and also of- fering to intervene on behalf of my brother and apply for state funds to help my brother who lost all his possessions except for his car, in that incident." Please note the following, ultra-important detail: a Cabi- net minister offered the family 'State funds' to 'help'… before any form of inquiry or criminal court case had even begun; still less determined whose responsibility it actually was to compensate those victims. So, the first reaction from the government of the day was to simply dig its paws into taxpay- ers' money, to make good for a criminal action for which everyone could see, at a glance, who was really responsible. Then as now, it was a case of government abusing of public funds to protect its 'allies' (read: 'donors') in the con- struction sector. But I'll return to this point later. Coming back to the question of culpability: two years after the event, criminal action was taken against the two contrac- tors – one hired by the devel- oper, the other sub-contracted by the first – on charges of "involuntary homicide […] through imprudence, careless- ness or unskilfulness in their profession". Ten years later, the Magis- trates' court found them guilty of those charges… and ordered them to pay 4,000 euros each in compensation to the victim's family. Well, what can I say? Even at 2012 property prices, that paltry sum could have easily been recouped tenfold with the sale of a single apartment… and the developers had man- aged to squeeze around eight apartments into the same plot. Today, 8,000 euros represents the monthly rental income of maybe two of the same flats. Small price to pay for a 'Get- Out-Of-Jail-Free' card, don't you think? But court sentences serve other purposes than meting out justice (which it didn't even do, in this case); they are also supposed to act as a deterrent to would-be offend- ers. What message did that sentence impart to the rest of Malta's construction sector? To my ears, it sounded a lot like: "It's OK, folks: in the greater scheme of things, you making shitloads of money out of land speculation is more important than such trivialities as human life and limb. So by all means, just carry on (liter- ally) steamrolling over eve- ryone and everything in your path… only, to be on the safe side, put aside around 10,000 euros a year: you know, just to cover the cost of the occasional building you might acciden- tally demolish here and there… and maybe to compensate the relatives of anyone you might unintentionally murder…" That sentence was both shocking and outrageous to me at the time; and while the sen- sation of 'shock' has long since worn off… part of the outrage still lingers. It still angers me, that greed somehow managed to trump even the most basic demands of natural justice in that particular case. And it angers all the more today, because… well, if there was no excuse back in 2000… what excuse could there possibly be 20 years later, for the fact that things have not only failed to improve since then… but have actually deteriorated? Yes, as you will obviously have worked out by now, all this builds up (pun intended) to the three, or four – I'm beginning to lose count, all of a sudden – buildings to have either partially or totally col- lapsed in the past few weeks alone. It's almost like an epi- demic: first a balcony subsides in Zejtun; then a ceiling caves in, in Naxxar; and next thing you know, an entire apartment block comes tumbling down in Gwardamanga. I hate to ask, but… how serious do the symptoms have to get, before we realise we are dealing with a full-blown health and safety emergency here? But again, it is the reactions that get to me the most. In the case of Gwardamanga, three (3) Cabinet ministers – Home Affairs Minister Michael Far- rugia, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg and Social Solidarity Minister Michael Falzon… one I doubt many will remember the incident in any detail, so bear with me while I map it out. It happened in Cathedral Street, Sliema – a few doors down from the ironmongery formerly known as 'Balbi', and a few doors up from what was once 'Cathedral Library' – in April 2000: almost exactly 19 years ago to the day