Aqra bil-Malti
An architect arraigned in court and accused of the involuntary homicide of Jean-Paul Sofia, among other charges, has been given new work assignments by the Lands Authority through her private office, The Shift can reveal.
In July 2023, architect Adriana Zammit was suspended from her full-time job at Infrastructure Malta. A few weeks later, the Lands Authority, managed by CEO Robert Vella, did not hesitate to assign the same architect new jobs related to the valuation of public land.
One such job, conducted by Zammit, was concluded in January 2024 and recently published in the Government Gazette.
The CEO did not reply to questions on whether this was an acceptable move since the architect is facing charges related to her negligence on the job.
The Authority also declined to list all the assignments given to Zammit since her suspension from work and to state how many public payments were made to the architect.
The CEO of the Lands Authority, Robert Vella.
The architect, who is denying the accusations, also did not reply to questions by The Shift.
On the other hand, her employer, Infrastructure Malta, confirmed that Zammit was still suspended on half-pay by the agency.
Despite her suspension, Zammit still holds an architect’s warrant and continues her private practice.
The Chamber of Architects has no power to suspend her warrant until court procedures are over.
In July 2023, Zammit was charged with manslaughter after a magisterial inquiry into Jean-Paul Sofia’s death concluded that she “through negligence, lack of ability in her profession, or lack of adherence to regulations caused the death”.
The court-appointed expert in the inquiry, Prof Alex Torpiano, found that Zammit “did not make the necessary calculations to ensure structural stability” and “failed to inspect the construction site properly” – a Kordin factory.
A photograph of Jean-Paul Sofia placed by the construction site victim’s mother in front of the Office of the Prime Minister in Valletta.
He also said Zammit “did not show the necessary ability and professional know-how required in her responsibility as the architect”.
Torpiano told the inquiry that the builders of the collapsed building said they had never even seen Zammit on site and admitted that work instructions were given to them by one of the two developers, Matthew Schembri – a self-appointed site manager with no qualifications to act in any such capacity.
“During the construction phase of this project, it resulted that architect Adriana Zammit used to depend on WhatsApp (pictures) to give instructions on how works should proceed,” the inquiry stated.
“According to her WhatsApp messages, particularly with Matthew Schembri, it results that she based the work’s supervision on pictures of the works sent to her by Schembri himself,” it added.
Sofia’s last order before the building collapsed like a house of cards was to photograph fresh concrete poured on the roof and send the images to the architect.
Zammit obtained her architect’s warrant in 2012 and worked at the Planning Authority for several years before moving to Infrastructure Malta.
Lands Authority corporate governance bordering on criminal negligence
It is incredible. The governments main priorities are fixing their corrupt persons exposed in courts , with a protected job. So a suspension on half pay but getting contracts in direct orders from the same office. The authority refuses to answer incriminating questions.
This is how Bobby’s planet works. We mean nothing and his friends take what they want and when people die they do not care
It is not what you know but who you know!
Udoubtably a Mafia organisation posing as a “Political ” party, with unfettered access to the public funds meant for the administration of the population. The members are mostly guilty of grand theft, and personal enrichment,with diabolical disregard of the impact of their actions on fellow countrymen, truly MAFIALAND.