Evidence by an architect involved in monitoring building works at Mater Dei Hospital came under particular scrutiny by a Board of Inquiry into weak concrete in the building, which went so far to say that he should have resigned after pointing to shortcomings and not stayed there till the end.
The inquiry report was tabled in Parliament yesterday.
Architect Albert Cauchi (AC) was a structural reviewer and carried out inspections on site. He stated that he had concerns with the design but that he was never given a copy of the agreement with Ortesa, then responsible for the design.
He stated that the site as originally built was never intended to allow for vertical expansion. In a letter in May 1997 he stating that the columns may not be able to take any extra load. There were various occasions when he had to stop the contractor from proceeding with certain works due to bad workmanship or work practices and he also ordered that some works be demolished.
After the year 2000 someone decided to excavate underneath the foundations of the site and he also objected. However these excavations were proceeded with.
On certain occasions when he indicated bad workmanship he was over-ruled. Asked if he agreed with the assessment made by Arch. Attard Montaldo in his letter dated 2nd August 1996 in response to Ortesa that quality of works was generally good, he bluntly asserted that "Le ma naqbilx kien hemm hafna affarijiet Ii jinkwetawni."
He then went on a rant exclaiming that "This is Malta pero l-Lm200 million hadd ma jaf fejn marru. Darba baghatuli wiehed wara, supervisor, ghax jiena dejjem nitlob ghal supervisors, baghatuli wiehed kien canvasser ta' ministru, l-anqas jifhem tikka. lmbaghad id-Design and Build contract? Cost-plus. Hija oxxena. Oxxena kienet dik. X'kontroll irid ikun hemm. ll-kuntratur ma kien ikollu kontroll ta' xejn. Jaghmel li jrid! Oxxena! Min kien responsabbli ghaliha din tel-cost-plus sorry ta? Hadd ma tkellem."
He said there was a breakdown of communication within the management office to such an extent that he was not able to communicate his serious concerns to those above him in the chain of command. Presented with the present day technical reports he claimed that he was not surprised at all with the results explaining that "I'll tell you what happens, il-konkrit jibaghatuh mill-plant, il-konkrit fil plant jkun tajjeb, ahna naraw ir-rizultati u jkunu tajbin u niffirmawh dan tajjeb, by the time it gets on site, id-driver jiftahlu l-ilma.
"Kif izzidlu l-ilma il x-jismu tieghu jinzel hafna.That is one of the causes.
"The other cause is they either don't vibrate properly."
He further stated that "Jiene kont smajt Ii dahu certu sub-contractors hemmhekk Ii qatt ma kellhom isem tajjeb - dawn kienu issemmew fil-gazzetti bhal Bastjan Dalli. Dawn dahlu erbgha cowboys hemmhekk first class and this is what brings the cost plus contract. Corruption. I could see it. U min ma kienx qed jarahom vera ghalaq ghajnejh ghax ... Another thing I want to mention billi kien hemm tal-franka u din u l-ohra, ahna setghu jghidulna Ii gej minghand Blockrete u forsi kien jigi minn x'imkien iehor il-konkrit. Fejn tkun taf minn fejn qed igibu l-konkrit?"
In view of the above he was specifically asked if he had suspected that work was not being done properly, and that everyone knew that the work was not being done properly, but was being told to just let it be, he solemnly declared "Yes yes, dik."