I am quite impressed, and also glad, that such articles on government project technical issues are having such impact and finally given importance, unlike in the past when they were simply ignored.

I also wish to personally thank the media which are publishing such letters and above all, the Labour Party for all the interest, involvement and sincere help it offered in this regard, and for raising the issue of the Housing’s inadequate contract procedures in Parliament and requesting answers from the government, which it was unable to do.

The procedures adopted by the Housing and Maintenance Department for the issue of tenders and their adjudication, mostly for the Quantity Surveying services, is totally wrong. However I wish to highlight the invaluable help I received from the director of the Housing and Maintenance Department on this matter. He explained to me that this department is currently doing its utmost to create proper rules on tender schemes and construction works that will be adopted.

Unfortunately this is unlike other government construction departments, which not only lack qualified personnel but also, from my past experience and direct involvement, simply lacked know how and had a couldn’t care less attitude. The present government is doing nothing whatsoever to improve this situation, even though this was all reported to it in detail and so often.

It makes no sense at all that our country is aiming for modernisation and control of expenditures and imposes the use of outdated legislation at the same time. If the Chamber of Architects continues to be considered the sole authority on technical issues everything will remain chaotic. Unlike other countries such as the UK, which is our most referred to point of reference as regards professionalism (which was intelligent enough to modernize not only its structures but also its laws, classifying technicality in its various qualification aspects and omitted “jack of all trades”), we find ourselves more than a century behind.

Unless we take a true interest and such issues are solved and fixed from the bottom up, matters and discrimination (meaning, having highly qualified technical bodies in second place after architects, and construction contracts awarded blindly and expenditures not supervised), it will remain a great problem for our country and we shall only have the visionary improvement as achieved today.

Fabrizio Gatt

SAN GWANN