Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that the Building Regulations Office had not received any complaints about the development in Guardamangia Hill.

The Prime Minister was asked by the media to give his comments after a block of apartments collapsed on Wednesday evening, lucking injuring no-one but leaving four families homeless.

Without having a reason to doubt that the residents had raised their complaints, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat maintained that it must be made sure that the system was followed before jumping to conclusions.

 “I am not saying that the residents were wrong, but it could be that they made reports to another authority.”

Muscat noted that it could be that they reported the issue to the project management of the company and not the authorities.

The Building Regulations Office (BRO) informed the Prime Minister that no reports had been made, and he said that the important thing is that compliance is not only on paper but also with facts.

Whilst insisting that we should not make a caricature of the construction sector when these incidents happen, he also said that they should not be considered blips in the sector.

“This isn’t about one construction site where an incident took place, this is about a lot of construction sites where cases have happened. We must not characterize the construction sector based on this," he said.

He insisted that taking into consideration the large amount of development that goes on, then it wouldn’t be fair to characterize the everything based on an accident, as that would not be fair on those who act responsibly.

Muscat again stressed that it must be made sure that things aren’t only being done on paper, but that if there is need for more assurances on the spot – then that is what interests him, and that’s the information he asked for.

The Housing Authority has involved itself to see whether there is an emergency situation with regards to the family, and offer them all the necessary assistance.

“If there’s need for an investigation then an investigation should take place.”

The Prime Minister insisted that there were varying scenarios that could have taken place, such as reports could have been made and no action was taken; reports could have been made to the contractor; no reports made at all; everything was done as it was supposed to; or even everything was done as it was supposed to on paper but inspections to confirm what was on paper were not.

“We will definitely not allow for a situation where responsibilities are not shouldered.”

The Prime Minister said that he is waiting for the conclusions of the investigations that are being made from different authorities, and a magisterial inquiry.

Video: One News