When I was at university, I remember this law professor regularly intoning his versions of Latin proverbs. He was particularly fond of telling us that “Tempus omnia solvit”. That was his way of telling us that, eventually, all matters would be resolved, all legal squabbles would be settled with the passage of time.
He was right of course. With the passing of the years, it becomes ever more difficult to maintain the energy required to fight legal battles. People move on, take up other activities and unless they can do otherwise, they often run out of steam or lose interest in never-ending legal sagas with the expense and bad blood these entail. It always struck me how this often worked out to the benefit of the guilty party or the person responsible for causing the situation.
Say, a squatter takes over a house that does not belong to him and entrenches himself firmly in someone else’s property. The owner has to sink money, time and energy in taking the squatter to court to have him evicted from his property.
As the lawsuit drags on in a never-ending series of postponements and legal skirmishes, the wrongdoer gets to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labour. He benefits from the passage of time and the weakness of the law in dealing with these kinds of cases.
Time is also on the side of those contractors guilty of shoddy workmanship and using substandard materials. As the years roll on, it becomes always more difficult to ascertain who was responsible for mixing or using those batches of now-cracking concrete.
Audit trails get lost in the mists of time and prescription is the ultimate refuge of wrongdoers. Necessary – yes – but still benefitting the negligent.
All this comes to mind when reading reports about alleged structural flaws at Mater Dei Hospital. Tests carried out at the hospital show that the concrete structures over the accident and emergency department are so weak they cannot withstand the weight of two planned medical wards. Health Minister Konrad Mizzi was quoted as saying that the quality of the concrete in some parts of the hospital is “significantly below standards and extremely weak in certain areas”.
He later added that “the concrete that was used in certain columns was not strong enough and of inferior quality”.
I don’t know whether there is really any cause for alarm, but I am certain of one thing – even if the entire hospital crumbles before our eyes, no-one will ever be found responsible.
Time is also on the side of those contractors guilty of shoddy workmanship and using substandard materials
The passage of time and the generally lax attitude towards law enforcement and maintaining standards has seen to that. The government has declared that it will be asking for responsibility to be shouldered “be it political, technical and commercial”. That rings rather hollow.
The Labour government’s record (like the Nationalist administration before it) for holding wrongdoers to account is terribly poor. To date, it has opted for amnesties (in the case of the meter tampering scheme) and appeasement (in the Armier case) rather than calling anyone to account. So it’s not as if we’re waiting with bated breath for the results of any investigation or eventual prosecution. That doesn’t happen around here.
The tab for this ‘anything goes’ attitude will be picked up by the taxpayers who have to bear the burden of the repair and reinforcement works and – in tragic cases – the victims – if an accident had to occur because of the negligence.
It reminds me of an article I was reading about the aftermath of the earthquake in L’Aquila in Italy. Three hundred and six people died in the quake. In one of those outrageous and inexplicable judgements that sometimes stun us, scientists were found guilty for not having predicted the quake. In reality, many deaths were caused by substandard building. A report by geologists and civil engineers carried out a few months before the quake found that the vast majority of buildings didn’t meet modern safety standards.
A report from Italy’s technology research agency, ENEA, concluded that the building firm that landed some of these public building contracts was using substandard sand and defective steel girders. Fifteen years down the line, relatives mourn their dead and L’Aquila is practically a ghost town. And the people truly responsible for the disaster go unpunished.
Hopefully, nothing on the same lines will happen here, but the following quote seems especially pertinent in our scenario: “The structural integrity of a building is no stronger than the social integrity of the builder and each nation has a responsibility to its citizens to ensure adequate inspection. In particular, nations with a history of significant earthquakes and known corruption issues should stand reminded that an unregulated construction industry is a potential killer.”
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt