Editorial | Why the Sofia inquiry is also a damning indictment of politicians

The Jean Paul Sofia inquiry findings are disturbing albeit not surprising. The inquiry board did not mince its words in describing the failings across several public entities that contributed to a lax supervisory environment.

Before the inquiry board had the opportunity to take a deep dive into the systems that regulate the construction industry, many had spoken about lax enforcement by the authorities that allowed developers to cut corners. Unfortunately, ears remained shut and in Sofia’s case, cutting corners had fatal consequences.

From the award of public land at the Corradino Industrial Estate to the developers, which the inquiry said should have never happened, to the lack of inspections on the building while it was being constructed, the whole process was fraught with failings.

In a very pertinent observation, the inquiry board referred to public officials and their attempts to accommodate developers at all costs, while hiding behind anonymity and bureaucracy to escape the consequences of their shortcomings. Public officials have to shoulder responsibility for their actions and must be accountable for the decisions, or non-decisions, they make.

In one of the salient comments the inquiry board said: “In a normal country, negligent or irregular behaviour leads to civil legal consequences and sometimes criminal consequences. Someone, somewhere must understand that what is bent cannot remain so but must be straightened. It’s wrong to say everything goes on the mistaken premise that people forget over time. When those who are obliged to defend the common good, stop doing so, the risk is that the illegality becomes acceptable, and the rule of law gravely prejudiced.”

The inquiry board’s observation is very true across the width of the public service. This is an attitude problem – the anything goes attitude that in Sofia’s case proved fatal.

Unfortunately, this is an attitude that trickles down from the higher echelons of political power, where people found guilty of wrongdoing are welcomed back as heroes and money is dished out generously to cronies, while regulatory authorities are beset by lack of resources to carry out their work.

The inquiry findings justify the repeated calls made last year for a public inquiry to be held because it was best placed to shed light on administrative shortcomings. It proves how wrong the Prime Minister was to refuse the inquiry and how right Jean Paul Sofia’s mother Isabelle was to persevere in her quest for a public inquiry.

It is good the Prime Minister eventually saw light and went on to appoint a public inquiry board with a wide remit. It is also good that he apologised to Sofia’s parents.

But an apology is not enough. The Prime Minister must make a commitment and take the necessary steps to ensure the anything goes attitude across the government is eradicated.

This attitude fosters impunity and undermines the basic tenets of a normal democracy.

On Wednesday evening in parliament, the Prime Minister spoke boldly about the need for the construction sector to ‘shape up, or ship out’. He is correct because the sector has long acted like it owns the country. But the change must go beyond the construction sector.

Government ministers and politicians must also ‘shape up, or ship out’ by fostering an attitude of accountability towards the people that elect them. The Sofia inquiry is as much an indictment of the construction sector and the authorities that regulate it, as it is of the politicians who enabled these circumstances to occur and persist.