The public inquiry looking into the death of 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia has just started shaping up a picture of the competencies of government entities, yet in the second sitting, we saw the testimonies of two top health and safety officials already clashing.
Chairman of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority David Xuereb and its CEO Mark Gauci took the stand before the inquiry one after the other on Thursday, and some details did not match.
A question by retired judge and public inquiry chair Joseph Zammit McKeon pertained the OHSA’s website, where Xuereb told the board that the site was down for a number of months, testifying that it was also in a “disgraceful state.”
He also said that the OHSA’s communications and PR department is “very poor.”
The website – which includes the authority’s strategic plan, as well as information for the public, is in need of an update, Xuereb continued to say.
Gauci, self-described as an objective and technical person, insisted that the OHSA’s website was never down, and steps were taken for the website’s information to be made available, even starting the process to have a new website.
Another discrepancy was when Xuereb said that 14 enforcement officers are employed within the OHSA, having increased from 12 early last year.
This number of officers, who are responsible for enforcing health and safety in every industry and workplace on the island, has remained the same after Sofia’s death, Xuereb confirmed.
Gauci, on the other hand, said that the authority has 13 inspectors, one less than what Xuereb said before him.
These disagreements, while seemingly small, do prove some shortcomings in the authority, and Xuereb himself said that the board he’s part of runs at an “arm’s length” from the authority’s executive.
Meanwhile, when answering questions by Architect Mario Cassar on due communication between different entities to inform one another about certain projects, Xuereb said that there should be a centralised digital system encompassing data by the Planning Authority, the Building and Construction Authority, OHSA and JobsPlus, for efficacy.
Yet, neither Xuereb nor Gauci could agree on a simple, yet important, fact: how many enforcement officers the authority has. The testimonies of both were separate and court procedure is such that neither will have heard the testimony of the other, meaning that seemingly, not much communication happens on the outside.
This poses a question: how can the authority expect more, efficient collaboration with other entities, when its top officials can barely consult with each other?