Page 217 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

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Interim monthly payments
28 days represents 20 working days which may seem unreasonably short. A
longer period may sometimes be appropriate. Few, if any, contractors pay
their suppliers’ accounts in 28 days.
Under FIDIC conditions for international work the engineer has 28 days
within which to issue a certificate for interim payment, and the employer a
further 28 days within which to make payment.
As a consequence of the short time period for payment under ICE condi-
tions, the resident engineer must try to agree quantities, or the value of work
done, with the contractor before he draws up his account. The contractor will
need to be warned that if he submits quantities or items for payment which
have not been prior agreed, there will be no time for the resident engineer to
hold discussions on them; he will substitute his own measurement or amount
payable in lieu.
The contractor should be required to submit at least two copies of his
interim account in a standard form which is set out in the specification to the
contract (see Section 13.7). The account should be in a form agreed beforehand,
having three quantities columns showing ‘Paid last certificate’, ‘Addition this
certificate’ and ‘Total to date’. The account will no doubt comprise computer
printouts which need checking to ensure bill rates are as tendered and the
charges are arithmetically correct. Where the resident engineer does not agree
with items charged he should mark both copies before sending one copy to
the engineer. Subsequently the engineer may notify the resident engineer of
any further amendments made by him (or his contracts department), which
must be entered on the resident engineer’s copy, and he must send a letter to
the contractor notifying the detail of all amendments made to his account.
An important point the resident engineer should remember is to mark on
all accounts the date of receipt.
It should be remembered that monthly payments are only interim in nature
and can be adjusted for in a subsequent month if found to be wrong. Only the
final account decides the amount due under the contract.

16.2 Agreeing quantities for payment

The way in which the resident engineer should measure quantities has already
been described in Section 13.6. In that section the importance was emphas-
ized of making clear what has been measured, and what has been agreed for
payment – with sketches as necessary.
It is strongly advisable that the resident engineer should take the lead in
assessing final quantities. He or a member of his staff should supply quantity
calculations to the contractor (or his quantity surveyors) and request agree-
ment. If the opposite method is adopted of the contractor supplying his quan-
tity calculations for the resident engineer to check, the resident engineer may
find it difficult or impossible to find out why some contractors’ quantities
differ from his own. This is especially so if the contractor’s quantity calculations