An overview of standard contractual forms
modifications in the construction industry -
the Middle East

Sadek, S; Kulatunga, U

Abstract

Despite the fact that there exist several construction forms of contract that aimed at standardizing the contractual clauses in relation to the construction industry, the adoption of the same was being subject to major modifications and alteration endangering the overall spirit and consistency of the contractual forms.
Knowing that the middle East region is and will be subject to major construction projects during the upcoming years, it is of major importance to consider that well figured contractual clauses would play major role in simplifying part of the complexity associated with the construction environment. The problem is that the project parties would be focusing on the contractual aspects governing the project rather than technical and execution issues which would eventually flag hindrance in the project original schedule and certainly an escalation to the project original budget notwithstanding the project works atmosphere. Furthermore, and if the contractual clauses were not drafted clearly, contracts negotiation and signature would be a time consuming challenge and would take considerable time from the total originally allocated. During project execution, the problem may become worse if the contractual terms and conditions were not clear enough i.e. the contracting parties do not have a clear understanding of what they have agreed upon, accordingly, any claim may be considered as a fertile ground for contractual disputes.
The above issues represent a challenge to any project manager whose aim is to finish his project within the given time frame and allocated budget constraints. Hence, it would be of great importance to have the conditions of contracts responsibly drafted. The same would assist in alleviating disputes that do relate to contractual terms and would support the contracting parties to jointly read from the same book. This paper focuses on Standard construction contracts current practices in the Middle East with their corresponding conditions. The final section of this paper highlights the major modifications being witnessed to the Standard contractual clauses.

Citation

the Middle East. Presented at International Conference on Building Resilience: Individual, institutional and societal coping strategies to address the challenges associated with disaster risk, Heritance Ahungalla, Sri Lanka,

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: International Conference on Building Resilience: Individual, institutional and societal coping strategies to address the challenges associated with disaster risk
• Conference Location: Heritance Ahungalla, Sri Lanka,
• Start Date: Sep 17, 2013
• End Date: Sep 19, 2013
• Acceptance Date: Mar 19, 2023
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2015
• Publisher URL: http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/events/28986
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference