Pursuant to an extraordinary general meeting held on 22 July, Anchovy announced the “resignation of PwC Malta from the office of auditors” with immediate effect, “resulting from the economics of the engagement as discussed with management, [the decision] is duly ratified and approved,” the public announcement says.

Anchovy will be appointing Mazars Malta Ltd as auditors of the company up until the next annual general meeting “at which the accounts for the current year are laid”, the announcement adds.

Anchovy told Business Malta that the company “has nothing further to add to the announcement”.

The company announcement is available for public view on the official webpage of the Malta Stock Exchange.

The post Anchovy names Mazars Malta as new auditor first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

This Extraordinary General Meeting was the second in three weeks, the first meeting was held on 21 June. Both of these meetings stressed the importance of safety and avoidance of damage to third-party property.

Substantial progress has been made since the last EGM, states Perit Simone Vella Lenicker, President of the Kamra tal-Periti. Concerns addressed in the last EGM are now included in the current Legal Notice 136, regarding the Avoidance of Damage to Third Party Property. The Kamra’s insistence that registration, licensing and classification were needed for safety and quality on construction site brought about the setting up of a register of contractors, which was announced Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Ian Borg and parliamentary secretary Chris Aguis together with the Kamra tal-Periti and the Malta Developers Association. The register will be followed up later this year by the establishment of a system of licensing and classification.

The Kamra tal-Periti has drafted proposals for a new Legal Notice which are expected to address the current decline being experienced by the industry following the introduction of the new regulations on 25 June, particularly on sites where demolition and excavation works cannot proceed without the appointment of a Site Technical Officer, says the press release sent to BM. Discussions are currently underway with the government on these proposals.

The proposed system will start off with three Registers: Building Construction, Excavation and Demolition Contractors, stated Perit André Pizzuto, Vice President of the Kamra tal-Periti. These are further classified on the basis of risk, namely High, Medium and Low Risk. The perit [Maltese word for architect] in charge of a new project would commission or carry out a risk assessment and indicate the type of contractors required to carry out the planned works, according to the press release.

The Site Technical Officer introduced in the Legal Notice is still maintained, however, the minimum qualifications held by such person would depend on the risk category in which the contractor is registered.

During the EGM it was agreed that a number of points with regard to Legal Notice 136 of 2019 need to be addressed without further delay. These mainly include: the role, responsibilities and competencies of the Site Technical Officer; a clear distinction between the works specifications that must be prepared by a perit, and the method statement which must be prepared by the contractor in order to state how the specifications are to be implemented and achieved; a clearer distinction between temporary and permanent works; and also the removal of various inconsistencies between the Maltese and English versions of the Legal Notice. The Kamra tal-Periti will be requesting further meetings with government to address such issues, says the press release.

Support from international associations

The Kamra tal-Periti has received letters of support for its position from the international community of architects, in which they were praised for their work on ensuring that historically established lines of responsibility on construction sites, in accordance with international practice in all developed countries, are maintained and strengthened.

“The Union commends the profession as it advocates clear and rigorous guidelines describing the responsibilities of the various stakeholders on construction sites in the interests of safety and quality of the built environment,” says Thomas Vonier, President of the International Union of Architects (UIA)

The Union of Mediterranean Architects (UMAR) held their 25th General Assembly in Rome and recognised “the Maltese profession in its efforts to retain its independence and impartiality, and for promoting clear and strong guidelines delineating responsibilities of the various stakeholders on construction sites in the interests of safety and quality of the built environment,” according to Wassim Naghi, President of the UMAR. “The General Assembly also supports the Kamra tal-Periti in its strong calls requesting government to immediately allocate sufficient and adequate resources to the local Regulator in order to allow it to carry out its statutory functions in a timely and efficient manner in the interest of public health and safety on and around construction sites,” notes Mr Naghi.

Turbulent times

After the walls of three buildings collapsed in the past two months in Malta near construction sites, forcing the government to temporarily halt demolition and excavation works, the Kamra called for an extraordinary general meeting.

Prior to the EGM the Kamra published its preliminary position, and after the EGM the Kamra pledged commitment to improving the public safety of citizens and urged the government to enter discussions with the association.

The Kamra also welcomed the recent listing of licensed masons published on the website of the Building Regulation Office (BRO). 

The Kamra sent a letter to the minister, asking to clarify a number of points. At the same time, the Kamra also asked for a meeting prior to the publication of the legal notice.

Kamra tal-Periti met the government to discuss the new regulations that were brought into force, during which the association outlined its issues with the current regulations, and the positions voted upon in the extraordinary general meeting on 21 June.

The post Architects propose solutions addressing industry slowdown first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The Code of Police Laws stipulates that it is not lawful to exercise masonry without a licence, which requires to give assurance to the architect in charge of the project and confirms that such a person is qualified to carry out such operations as having received the appropriate training.

“If any mason, through unskilfulness, imprudence or carelessness, shall, in the construction of any work entrusted to him, and appertaining to his trade, cause any injury to any person or property, it shall be lawful for the Court of Magistrates to interdict such mason from the exercise of his trade for any time to be stated in the sentence, ordering, at the same time, the withdrawal of the licence,” The Code of Police states, according to the Kamra press release. Therefore, the responsibilities arising out of the code are clear and no lesser legal instrument can be used to infer otherwise, the association says.

In addition, the publication of the list is welcome and it is expected that the BRO will not permit works to continue on any site where masons are found not to be on the list, the Kamra underscores.

Moreover, the Civil Code places the onus for the structural integrity jointly on the architect and the contractor. The Building Regulation Act also places the obligation on the BRO to issue licences and registration of masons, fire consultants, other consultants in the building industry, building contractors and tradespeople, the press statement says, the Kamra reminds.

The Kamra tal-Periti held an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Friday, June 21, to discuss the state of the Maltese construction industry, after the review of the Avoidance of Damage to Third Party Property Regulations draft and the interruption of all demolition and excavation activities on 13 June 2019. The Kamra says this very EGM was the largest in the history of its existence. This meeting was attended by approximately 400 architects, declaring the urgent intervention of the government in order to collaborate with the Kamra and to ensure the safety of people as a first priority.

In fact, after the EGM and following discussions, the Kamra tal-Periti reiterates its willingness to support the Maltese government in setting up systems for the registration and licensing of contractors in accordance with the BRO’s obligations as set out in the Building Regulation Act, according to the press release.

The post Kamra tal-Periti applauds public list of masons first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The EGM stressed that no effort should be spared to ensure that the safety of people in their homes, and their quality of life, are the topmost priority of all involved in the construction industry, including the respective regulators.

The EGM also reiterated the profession’s full commitment to ensure public safety and urged the government to enter into discussions with the Kamra, as the sole and legal representative of the profession, rather than depend on advisors or entities which may not be adequately familiar with the technical and engineering aspects of the construction process.

The EGM was called after the walls of three buildings collapsed in the past two months in Malta near construction sites, forcing the government to temporarily halt demolition and excavation works. After consulting architects, the chamber also issued a preliminary position prior to the EGM.

“The time is long overdue for the government to properly address in a holistic manner, the problems besetting the construction industry, and not through a piecemeal approach,” the Kamra stresses after the EGM. “Hastily drafted and ill-thought revisions to a Legal Notice will not serve to ensure public safety, but rather serves only to confuse the various roles and responsibilities on construction sites. In particular, the EGM emphasised that under Malta’s Civil Code there are only two figures responsible for construction work, namely the Perit and the Contractor,” the statement notes.

“Consequently, the role of a site manager, as conceived in the Legal Notice, could only be assumed to be within the contractor’s setup, since the Contractor was obliged at law to understand and follow the instructions issued by the perit [Maltese word for architect], and be sufficiently knowledgeable to understand the significance of such instructions,” the press statement adds.

Taking responsibility

During the EGM, architects reaffirmed their commitment to take full responsibility for the tasks that were within their remit. They, however, demanded that the Maltese government “stops dragging its feet, and immediately takes the necessary steps to ensure that the framework which allows periti [architects] to ensure public safety is in place and effective.”

After the EGM, the association representing Maltese architects has come forward with the following demands:

• adoption of the amendments to the Periti Act, that the Kamra tal-Periti has been insisting on for the last 12 years, be approved, in full consultation with the Kamra;
• that the government enters into immediate discussions with the Kamra, on the Building and Construction Regulation Framework it has proposed, and to agree on its implementation within a reasonable timeframe;
• that, even before the setting up of the Building and Construction Authority, a proposal which the Kamra has supported since its inception, the government immediately provides the Building Regulation Office with all the necessary financial, human, and technical resources it requires to deal with its workload;
• and finally, that the government implements the obligations of the regulator as far as concerns the certification of all building products, both produced locally or imported, as required by the Laws of Malta since 2011.

Furthermore, the chamber says that any Legal Notice should, rather than contain technical detail that is better placed in building regulations, include provisions that empower the architect to suspend works, and lodge a report with the Building Regulations Office, without having to relinquish their commission, if the contractor or developer refuse to comply with the architect’s instructions on matters relating to structural integrity, the press statement adds.

Finally, the architects demand a clear separation between planning application and permitting processes, and the processes by which building and construction are notified, regulated and monitored. “Nearly five years have been wasted as a result of the misguided advice given to the government that the two processes should be brought together under the remit of the Planning Authority,” the press statement by the Kamra underscores.

The Maltese government halted all demolition and excavation works in the country on 13 June 2019, as an emergency action in view of the recent spate of structural collapses which occurred adjacent to construction sites. The Council of the Kamra tal-Periti considered this measure necessary, due to the potential risks to public safety. Therefore, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that new regulations would be published regarding excavation and demolition works, in order to address a number of issues.

The post Architects urge gov’t to enter discussions in light of public safety first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.