The Malta Developers Association has called for “tangible” enforcement of the construction industry, stating that the tragic death of Miriam Pace could have been avoided if all those responsible had done what they were supposed to.

“In the current circumstances, the MDA wants to clarify, once again, that it is a voluntary association representing investors in the industry and not the regulator,” the MDA said in a statement. “The MDA does not have any role in overseeing or enforcing the roles of Architects, Site Technical Officers and contractors on development sites during ongoing construction works.”

“This is the role of various publicly funded entities, on which the MDA has been consistently harping during the past years for the need of a thorough reform, unfortunately with little progress.”

“Following yesterday’s tragic events, the MDA calls upon all those responsible to make sure that, without any further delay, all those responsible for the tragic accident are held accountable and face the consequences.”

“At the same time, the MDA is once again insisting that real reforms and more tangible enforcement needs to be introduced, following dialogue, so that these such incidents are avoided.”

The Association also called for faster inquiries into these incidents, noting that the inquires into last year’s similar house collapses remain ongoing till this day.

“We need accountability in acceptable time frames,” it said.

Yesterday, the MDA suspended its council member Malcolm Mallia after it was revealed he was one of the investors in a Ħamrun project which led to the collapse of Miriam Pace’s home. Today, it also indirectly criticised another partner in the development consortium, Roderick Camilleri, after it was revealed he was also the designated architect of the project he had invested in.

“While the MDA has no problem in recognizing that there are problems in the industry, it is unacceptable that Architects who are responsible for overseeing construction projects are also investors in the same projects,” it said. “This is not on and real action is required.”