In a statement, the FOI referred to a report (The Malta Independent 15 September) about difficulties being experienced by the Malta Transport Authority to move forward with its programme of road construction. It was stated by the same sources that prices being quoted by contractors were far higher than the authority’s estimate of costs and that, as a result, the general public was being inconvenienced.

The FOI, in representation of all road works contractors, feels that it should put the record straight so that the general public will know exactly why certain road works are not materialising. Almost a year ago the Malta Transport Authority issued new regulations for road construction works that were meant to bring the standard of roads up to EU levels.

At the same time it issued and tried to impose a set of rates of payment to contractors built on the strength of a report prepared by German consultants more than a year before. This report only surfaced and was sent to the FOI when contractors repeatedly showed their unwillingness to undertake work at ridiculous prices. It was then stated that the report was meant to serve as a basis for discussion, the FOI said.

The federation meticulously analysed the German consultants’ report on a technical and financial basis and found it riddled with hefty inaccuracies, wrong assumptions, unsupported costings and conclusions that did not reflect any serious analysis of the particular situation under which road construction works in Malta have to be done. It therefore came as no surprise that the rates offered to road contractors were unrealistic. The federation discussed their report with the consultants and high officials from the Malta Transport Authority and followed this up with a detailed analysis of what it found defective in the report.

The FOI sent its own detailed costings and its criticism of the consultants’ report to the authority and to the Minister for Urban Development and Roads more than three months ago. The FOI’s findings were never challenged and no verbal or written contact made. A meeting with contractors promised by the Minister last May never materialised, it said.

The federation would have expected the Malta Transport Authority and the Urban Development and Roads Ministry to give the above facts so that the public would know what is holding up progress on road construction and repair work. The FOI remarks that the inconvenience caused to the public is definitely not of the contractors’ own making. It is rather the arrogance of the authorities that chose to impose unfair conditions on contractors without even bothering to hold discussions, as the FOI was expecting, in an effort so that an equitable agreement be reached to the satisfaction of both sides.