Page 167 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

Civil Engineering Project Management
152
have to decide what is the correct interpretation. If the contractor wishes to
argue the matter it becomes ‘a claim’, and is put in the Claims Pending file with
all details attached.
The RE may raise the dispute over interpretation with the engineer’s con-
tracts department when he sends in the contractor’s application for checking.
If the contracts department agree with the RE’s ruling, there is no further
action to be taken; but if the department agrees with the contractor they may
re-insert the contractor’s claimed amount or whatever the RE has advised
would be the figure in that case.
Measurement sheets are best filed in ‘lever-arch’ files, in order of the Bill
Items. In the early stages of the job it may not be worthwhile attempting to
make any exact calculation of the quantity of an item. In that case a rough
sketch is drawn on the measurement sheet, showing how an estimate of the
work done has been calculated.

13.7 The contractor’s interim payment applications

The contractor’s monthly application for interim payment is usually set out
as shown in Fig. 13.4. Initially only the items under which work has been
measured need be listed, divided into bills. Later, when all the work listed on
a page of the bill of quantities has been completed, the page total only need be
quoted in the bill summary. Where work is incomplete and only an estimate
can be made of the work done, the RE may accept the contractor’s figures if
they are reasonable. But where work is completed, the contractor’s final meas-
urement of a quantity should check reasonably with the RE’s estimate. In such
matters as excavation the RE should not require an unreasonable degree of
3
accuracy, measurement to the nearest 1m is adequate. For minor differences
between the contractor’s figures and the RE’s, a compromise figure may be
agreed. Major differences should be looked into.
To aid estimating the probable final cost of the works (see Section 14.9) it is
best if extra items are put on a separate sheet or sheets, grouped for each sep-
arate bill of quantities, where possible. Extra items not authorized by a previ-
ously issued variation order (VO) must be checked by the RE. If he agrees
them he must send a draft VO to the engineer to cover them.
If he thinks an extra is invalid, or the rate or quantity is wrong, he should
discuss this with the contractor, and may decide to delete the item, accept it,
or substitute a rate or quantity he considers fair. He draws the engineer’s
attention to his decision when forwarding the contractor’s payment applica-
tion to him. If the contractor continues to dispute the item after the engineer’s
decision on it, the matter becomes a claim, is given a number and put on the
Claims Pending file for further consideration.
It is preferable for each VO to cover one instruction only. However, one VO
can be made to cover a series of related instructions, provided the instructions
covered are itemized. A typical style of VO is shown in Fig. 13.5.