Architect Charles Buhagiar.For Charles Buhagiar, being at the Building Industrial Consultative Council is a déjà vu. The council was his brainchild in 1997, when he was a Labour minister. Over the years it grew, flourishing under architect Robert Musumeci, but it has since lost momentum. It was set up in 1997 with a budget of €490,000 but by 2013, this had been shaved to €80,000.
Last year he was appointed executive chairman, and he is determined to put it back onto the map – getting the budget back up to €210,000.
“Property and construction seems to get nothing but bad press, and we sometimes forget what an important part of our economy it is. Construction, quarrying and real estate account for 11.1 per cent of our gross value-added and employs some 12,000 people,” he pointed out.
“And yet it is very fragmented. It does not even fall under a particular minister, although the BICC, as a consultative body, currently lies in Helena Dalli’s portfolio.”
The council represents a staggering range of stakeholders – 24 in all – from operators and regulatory bodies, to constituted bodies and educational institutions. To keep this structure workable, it has been split into an advisory board and an executive board.
The former looks after five working groups, looking after property, regulations and directives including health and safety, education and training, research and innovation, and property regeneration.
The executive board, which looks after day-to-day management, comprises the chairman and CEO, a representative from the advisory board and the five working group coordinators.
Mr Buhagiar has proposed a number of concrete ways to improve the sector and he seems optimistic that they will not fall on deaf ears.
Construction, quarrying and real estate account for 11.1 per cent of our gross value-added and employ some 12,000 people
One of the most innovative but potentially complex is for a skills card to be introduced.
“We have identified 89 skills involved in construction – and only a few of these are warranted. If we could establish what skills are required and certify that the holder of the card is qualified or experienced enough to carry out that job, it would cut out the cowboys that give the industry a bad name,” he said.
“The register would also enable us to identify those areas where skills are lacking on the island.”
He would also like to see a safety card, which is common overseas and which is often mandatory for access to a worksite.
Mr Buhagiar also believes that there is inadequate regulation and legislation.
“Believe it or not, there are only two legal notices covering construction – on worksite management and on damage to third parties. There should be many more, although of course, we have to ensure that the impact on the industry is appropriate. We have already worked with the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority to introduce some Eurocodes earlier this year,” he said.
Another issue that the BICC would like to sort out is the pro-perty price index. There are currently various ones in use by the Central Bank, the National Statistics Office (NSO) and the government – which needs a credible index to abolish the government architect valuations of the past.
“It doesn’t make sense to have different ones using different methodologies. We invited all the stakeholders to come up with a better one that reflects the real price paid and felt that the best place to get this information would be from the mortgage applications. So we asked the banks to add a few extra lines onto their forms,” he said.
Mr Buhagiar is a great believer in data – and another statistic that defies definition has been that of vacant properties. He wants to try to come up with a realistic figure which takes into account all the categories such as properties tied up in inheritance disputes and uninhabitable premises. The BICC is working with the NSO to try to break down the figures, but it is also going to the main inner harbour towns and some of the small villages to actually check up on properties identified as vacant.
The BICC is also trying to encourage contractors to form joint ventures to bid for projects overseas, with the help of Malta Enterprise, with its eye on the Palestinian Territories and – once the situation is stable – Libya.
“Even if companies join up, most would not be able to tackle large projects, and with small projects, they would be competing with local companies. So the ideal would be to go for medium-sized projects. We are working with Malta Enterprise to identify suitable ones and are planning a trade mission there at the end of this summer.”
All these initiatives are being tackled by a staff of 12 – soon to be boosted to 19. The council will also be moving from Belt is-Sebħ to premises in Old Mint Street in Valletta.
“We are tackling a number of long-standing issues. What we want is for the industry to see that we have a role to play in improving things and helping them,” he said.