The Commissioner for Planning within the Office of the Ombudsman has found that an agreement between the Building Regulation Office (BRO) and the Malta Developers Association (MDA), regarding the compiling of a registry of building contractors, was ‘against the law’.

The Commissioner’s investigation into this issue dealt with the involvement of the BRO.

After asking the BRO for information regarding the contents of the agreement reached between the BRO and the MDA and on what basis at law did the BRO authorise the MDA to compile such a register, “the BRO asked this Office how the BRO falls under the scrutiny of the Office of the Commissioner for Environment and Planning within the Office of the Ombudsman, as the latter only has jurisdiction on the working of the Planning Authority and the Environment and Resources Authority according to the Ombudsman Act.”

“To this effect the Commissioner informed the BRO that as a government entity that falls within the remit of the Ombudsman, this case involving the BRO was delegated to the Commissioner for Environment and Planning in terms of the Ombudsman Act as has been done during the past seven years. The BRO was thus reminded to provide the requested information.”

To the queries, the BRO replied that “it reached an understanding with the MDA to draw up a list of industry operators who are willing to voluntarily submit their details for onward publication in order to take stock of the current situation and added that there is nothing at law which prohibits such an initiative and that a register as established by law would be compiled at a later stage.”

“The Building Regulation Act enacted in the year 2011 states that the BRO shall be the entity responsible to register building contractors and that the Minister may delegate this function to any other Government department or body corporate at law. The MDA did not require the blessing of the BRO in order to compile such a register and the contents published by the BRO that the MDA register was authorised by and in agreement with the BRO is against the law that states that the same register must be compiled by the BRO.”

“Furthermore, the law does prohibit the involvement of the BRO in such a register being compiled by a third-party so much so that the law does not only list who may delegate such functions (that is, the Minister) but also onto whom these functions maybe delegated (that is any other Government department or body corporate established by law which the MDA does not form part of).”

The Commissioner within the Office of the Ombudsman recommended that the BRO should immediately remove its adverts on the media wherein the BRO advertises its involvement in the MDA register and that the BRO should compile its own register as established by law without taking note of any other registers compiled by any other body except for those registers that are authorised according to law.

“After the BRO did not reply on what action it intends to take in line with these recommendations, as established by the Ombudsman Act this Office referred the recommendations to the Prime Minister and subsequently also to the House of Representatives.”