FOI complains on increasing bureaucracy and waste of time for roads maintenance contractors

Delays being experienced by contractors of the corporation in the application for permits to start contracted works is the subject of a letter the FOI has sent to Enemalta Corporation.

These applications are routed through Enemalta Corporation, the Roads Directorate, Maltacom, the Water Services Corporation (for both water and drainage), and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

The FOI remarked that the situation was already complicated before MEPA became involved. Now this authority is causing a veritable bottleneck. The FOI had evidence in hand of permits for minor works, requiring barely a couple of days' work on site, that have been under consideration by MEPA alone for more than three months.

Some of these were filed with the Roads Directorate by contractors last February or March. There are several instances of such minor works where MEPA is insisting on a Full Development Permit Application.

This has been the case in one instance that involved barely two days' work in a secondary road in the countryside. Such procedures are considered by contractors to have added unnecessary waste of time and money to compile and that hardly made sense for excavating a trench of a few metres.

There have also been instances where local councils were refusing to give their consent to works in villages on the plea that roads had been surfaced and that the works entail reopening the roads. It was indeed becoming hard for contractors to plan their work under these conditions.

At a time when the federation is trying to convince Government to minimise bureaucracy, these procedures appear to be anachronistic and rather than contributing efficiency and value-added to the country, they have exactly the opposite effect.

It is the planners' fault, after all, that for decades no consideration was given to service channels to be placed under the pavements of Malta's roads. The consequence is that whenever there are faults in the various underground services the roads have to be dug up again. And contractors are there to get the job done to ensure continuity in essential services to the country.

The FOI letter to Enemalta was copied to the Prime Minister, MEPA and the various ministries involved in the hope that remedial action is taken to eliminate delays in the issue of permits to excavating contractors.