A review conducted by Arup and concluded in September last year was recently published by the Office of Government Commerce, UK (OGC). The review found that three contract forms now satisfy the principles of the OGC Achieving Excellence in Construction.

The three contracts fulfilling the OGC's Evaluation Criteria are the NEC3 (ECC), ACA's PPC2000 and the JCT Constructing Excellence Contract (CE).

Fundamentals of the NEC3 are hailed as flexibility, clarity and simplicity, and stimulus to good management. It has recently been confirmed suitable for International use.

ACA's PPC2000 suite has been updated and re-launched. An International version specifically for use in jurisdictions outside the UK was issued in October 2007 after extensive trials on projects in the Middle East.

The JCT Constructing Excellence Contract (CE) is not immediately suited to all International jurisdictions. Notably, however, the JCT suite includes a "Non-binding Partnering Charter" suitable for use with most standard forms of construction and engineering contracts and subcontracts.

The code of conduct encouraged in this type of "agreement" is increasingly being incorporated into the formal contract between the parties. At a time when parties to a construction contract want and need to act fast to take advantage of opportunities while at the same time setting up guard to avert or steer potential disaster, clients are asking their lawyers to formalise such culture codes within the provisions of the contract.

Many of the contractual mechanisms aiming to achieve this outcome were used by Arup as evaluation criteria. These included:

  • Encouragement of collaborative working
  • Encouragement of the achievement value
  • Encouragement of supply chain management
  • Encouragement of dispute prevention
  • Encouragement of early dispute resolution
  • Provision of processes for dealing with variation control and pricing
  • Incentivisation of supply chain performance
  • Encouragement of risk management
  • Provisions for performance management
  • Provision for risk allocation
  • Clear provisions regarding variation pricing and impact of variations on programme
  • User friendliness of the contract documentation.

These forms of contract are used in a variety of public and private projects internationally and some argue that such forms could and should see further use in Australia.

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