31 August 2018, Friday
Lessons from the Genova bridge collapse
Carmel CacopardoSunday,
19 August 2018, 10:33Last update: about 13 days ago
The collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genova should
lead to a number of lessons which have an application hundreds of kilometres
away from Genova.
Notwithstanding the fact that the official
investigations into the bridge collapse have barely commenced, the media in
Italy is discussing the possible causes of the collapse and whether there are
any other bridges on the Italian mainland that may shortly have a similar fate.
The fact that there have been some seven other bridge collapses in Italy during
the past five years adds more fuel to this debate.
Among the many lessons to be learnt is the need to
ensure adequate maintenance of public structures at all times. How does Malta
score? Not very well, I would say. Have a look at the bridge forming part of
the Marsa/Qormi flyover. It does not send out a good message even if, as stated
by Infrastructure Malta on Friday, the flyover is structurally safe. The
authorities in Malta only announced the commencement of a maintenance programme
for this bridge when questions began being asked as a result of the Genova
tragedy.
Hopefully, we will henceforth have regular maintenance
schedules of all public structuresand, maybe, someday the dripping Santa Venera tunnels
will be seen to permanently!
What about good governance in tenders for public
projects? A recent decision by the Public Contracts Review Board is
cause for concern. The award of the contract for the building and finishing of
a health centre in Paola was halted by this Board after serious doubts
regarding the evaluation procedure were raised. In fact, two professionals (an
engineer and an architect) were identified as being simultaneously advisors to
the Health Ministry’s Foundation for Medical Services as well as to two of the
three tenderers. It is, in my opinion, very difficult to understand how nobody
at the Foundation for Medical Services was aware of this glaring conflict of
interest. Good governance is apparently not the Foundation’s strong point.
Now that the Public Contracts Review
Board has decided the case, I would expect that the professional bodies
regulating the professionals involved take appropriate action on what is
clearly a very serious breach of professional ethics.
Adequate quality control of materials used on site is
another fundamental issue. The investigations regarding the quality of the
concrete used in the construction of Mater Dei Hospital investigations on the
quality of concrete used in the hospital project come to mind. The Foundation
for Medical Services was also responsible for this project. This issue has been
dealt with not only by an inquiry led by retired judge Philip Sciberras but
also by a report drawn up by the Auditor General at the request of the Finance
Minister, which was concluded and published last May.
We may remember that, in the Auditor General’s report,
it was emphasised that he found a “significant lack of documentation with
respect to all stages of the project”. This led the Auditor General to conclude
that “the Foundation’s inability to provide basic information relating to a
project of this magnitude represents an institutional failure and gross
negligence in the administration of public funds”.
On the other hand, the inquiry led by retired judge
Philip Sciberras also identified various deficiencies in respect of which it
recommended that action be taken. I point in particular to conclusion No. 5 of
the Sciberras report which states that: “the widespread failings uncovered by
the present day technical reports indicates that the pervasive weak concrete
found in the site is a result of intended fraudulent actions. Moreover, the
Board is left with a distinct impression that events as they transpired were
not the fruit of coincidence or providence but seem to indicate an element of
concertation and direction.”
Apparently, not much has been done to date regarding
the implementation of the recommendations of these reports. Shall we wait for
our own bridge collapse before taking action?
There is one basic lesson to be learnt from the Genova
tragedy: a lack of good governance is a potential killer.
