Contract Administration Standards
Contract administration is a study in language. Whether it is writing a clear description of a scope of work or interpreting the words in other communications, it all about the language. Because my first article alluded to trends away from standards I thought this article should at least list some sources of those standards.
In Canada the seat for all standard construction and design agreements and administration forms were, until recently (2003), with the RAIC (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada). Today the administration forms now sit with CCDC (Canadian Construction Documentation Committee) along with their standard agreements forms. Also, since 2003, CSC (Construction Specifications Canada) have undertaken the registration and training of Contract Administrators. It is this arena of defused authority that the trend away from standards is gaining strength.
In the United States of America, the AIA (American Institute of Architects) still retains control over the standard agreement and administration forms. The trend to abandon these standards has always been a business imperative but not generally adopted by governments and their agents, in the way it appears in Canada.
As The United States and Canada moved toward a more aggressive bidding style in the 60's bill of materials were almost completely abandoned. England in the other hand held on to such measures and contractually split oversight responsibility at the construction site between members of RIBA (Royal Institute British Architects) and RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors). The AAA (Australian Architecture Association) has since 2003 also adopted the above as their methodology.
In the current climate where standards are seen to be a too restrictive I think we need to examine the consequence of abandonment. When moving away from standards there are changing words, which means new words need to be to written, new words need to be to read. This change in wording creates a cost which is being the ignored. In the case of IO (Infrastructure Ontario) and other large entities, the contracting goal has moved from risk management or mitigation but risk elimination. Since risk elimination is impossible, the result is risk transfer. Since a design teams is generally the smallest member of the project team, the transfer has an affinity to settle there.
So, if you are a contract administrator in a design office, your work load is increasing because new contract language, and there is a higher probability for your firm to become liable because of risk transfer. Have a nice day, eh! ♦♦♦
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