The public inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia’s brutal death in December 2022 on a collapsed Kordin site has shone a light on the glaring pitfalls of Malta’s authority for health and safety at work.

In the fourth session in Valletta’s courts, Judge Zammit McKeon said he feared that the OHSA is a reactive, rather than proactive agency, after the OHSA head Mark Gauci admitted that no inspections were carried out on the deadly Kordin construction site.

The OHSA seems to act after reports are being made or through media coverage of dangerous construction sites.

In fact, Gauci confirmed that the OHSA is “not obliged to conduct inspections”. Citing a recent court report of an appeal of judgment, he affirmed that if no work is going on when inspectors drive past, then there is no duty to report.

Inspections last year went down by around 600, Charles Deguara, a member of the inquiry board pointed out, compared to the pandemic period. Gauci said the inspectors “had more time during COVID-19 to carry out inspections.”

This raises the question of an authority lacking the manpower to be more proactive than reactive.

Moreover, the issue of unregistered workers means that a lot of incidents go under the radar of the OHSA.

Lawyer to Sofia’s family,  Therese Comodini Cachia, pointed out that foreign, unregistered workers cannot be monitored by authorities, meaning that figures for construction site fatalities and actual fatality numbers can be different.

She cites the example of Lamin Jaiteh, a construction worker who fell from a height and was left for dead by the side of the road by his boss, who did not want to report the incident as Jaiteh was unregistered.

Gauci, during the grilling, insisted that the OHSA does conduct proactive work, like drawing up reports for parliament, meeting minority workers and circulating literature in different languages about occupational safety.

Reforms are also being introduced to vamp up the safety agency, but until then, Malta holds its breath for the safety of workers in this cowboy industry.

What do you make of these court revelations?