The Infrastructure Ministry, which is responsible for the construction sector, has told this newsroom that the new authority which will act as a regulator over the sector will have the power to ‘disqualify’ contractors and other players who do not abide by the rules.

The statement in itself is welcome, because it is about time that rogue contractors are reigned in. The problem is that the authority is still nowhere in sight.

The Malta Independent reached out to both the Malta Developers Association and the ministry after noting that the contractor involved in the fatal Hamrun building collapse in March has a long history of court cases, most of which are related to construction projects. The MDA told us that it agrees with a penalty-points system for contractors who consistently fail to abide by the laws that regulate the sector. The developers’ lobby had, in fact, proposed such a system two years ago, but this was never implemented by the government.

The MDA said, however, that it does not agree with a blacklisting system for such individuals.

The ministry, on the other hand, gave us a curt reply in which it said that the Building and Construction Agency – a 2017 Labour electoral pledge – will have the power to qualify and disqualify contractors. It did not say, however, whether it is in favour of a penalty-points system as proposed by MDA, or whether it agrees with a blacklisting system.

Giving the regulator such powers is positive for a number of reasons. One of them is the fact that rogue contractors will face sanctions and will not be allowed to give the entire industry a bad name. Perhaps more importantly, such a system would allow developers, which nowadays is a term that can include any member of the public, to know which contractors they can trust. While one should always do some background checks before engaging a contractor to work on a project, it would be much easier if the regulator provides a list that promotes good contractors and warns about the bad ones.

Blacklisting and revoking of licences, however, should be introduced for extreme cases. Contractors who consistently fail to observe laws and regulations have no place in the sector which has already claimed the lives of dozens of people over the past few years. Most of those who died were construction workers, but this year a woman lost her life when her own house came crashing down on her.

While a criminal investigation is underway into the Hamrun tragedy, the police believe they have sufficient evidence to prove that the collapse was caused by negligence. We have seen several other cases where shoddy work has caused similar accidents although, luckily, there were no fatalities there.

The authorities that currently regulate the sector in a haphazard way have tried to pass the buck on each other and the Building and Construction Agency, set up as the precursor to the authority, has only found its teeth in recent weeks. It is clear that the need for the various authorities regulating the industry to be brought under one roof is an urgent matter.

It is high time that the regulator is set up, for the benefit of the sector and of society.