The announcement that works on the new Parliament building in Valletta have again fallen behind schedule has come as a disappointment to many who wish to see the back of that building site at City Gate. Still, the announcement did not come as a surprise.

The contractors on the project were meant to reach a number of targets by September 30, to enable Parliament to move from its present location at the President’s Palace to the Renzo Piano building, which has received both praise and criticism.

The government has reacted to the delay by slapping the contractors with a daily fine of €20,000, a move which meets general approval.

The delays on this project have really dragged on for too long, considering that the original completion date was 2012. It is not just that some parts are yet to be clad in stone but even somewhat simple items like furniture, soffits, partitions and sanitary facilities remain to be done. This failure cannot be explained away as unforeseen technical hitches. The contractors have not delivered as promised. Yet, there was someone else who also made commitments.

Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi said in July that works on the new Parliament were at an advanced stage and he assured that his ministry would be closely monitoring progress to see that the deadlines are met. Despite this, the news that the project fell behind schedule only came out on October 1, less than two weeks before the House meets again after the summer recess.

In view of the amount of work that remains to be done, the quality of the monitoring that was promised by the minister, if it took place at all, must have been very poor indeed. There is political accountability here.

In a knee-jerk reaction to this embarrassment, the government issued a statement saying that the project had already fallen behind under the previous administration. It claimed it was handling the project differently and with more seriousness. Yet, there is little to substantiate that claim because the deadline has come and gone and City Gate is still a building site.

The government also said that the House Business Committee, which was due to meet the day the news of the delay came out, would be briefed by the Grand Harbour Rehabilitation Corporation on the progress of the work in order to set a new date for Parliament to move to the new site.

But when the committee met that evening, there was no one to brief the members. A restrained Speaker of the House pointed out that it was up to the committee to invite a representative. The Opposition members noted that, invited or not, no one had turned up despite the government’s official statement. The Infrastructure Ministry only sent a detailed progress report to the Speaker the next day.

The way in which the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry treated the House Business Committee, coupled with the ministry’s failure to monitor the works as promised, shows very shoddy workmanship on its side. This is a ministry that is responsible for the public transport system, which is in shambles, and for the country’s infrastructure, most especially roads, where traffic congestion is grinding the country to a halt.

If this ministry cannot handle a simple task as monitoring a project, the mind boggles at how it will ever come round to solving far more serious issues like traffic congestion, a problem that the Finance Minister recently said had economic repercussions.

After one-and-a-half years in office, blaming the previous administration does not work anymore.