Good contract admin (or administration) is key to any successful project.  If a claim is to succeed, it must contain certain essential elements: Cause, effect, entitlement and substantiation.

In other words:

1. What happened that gave rise to the claim.
2. The dates that various events occurred.
3. The effect of delays on the time for completion
4. In the case of incurred costs: Are they appropriate? Are they calculated correctly?
5. Does the contract contain entitlement to compensation?
6. Is every statement or fact in the claim substantiated?

We should also remember that the onus is on the claimant to prove that the claim is just. It is not the respondent’s job to do this when reviewing the claim.

To achieve this, the contractor’s contract administration systems must be able to support future claims. If they are not, it will be difficult or impossible to prepare a claim that fulfils these criteria.

Contract Administration: Things to Consider

Some things to consider in this respect are as follows:

1. Is your record keeping adequate and can the records be easily retrieved?
2. Are important and formal records drafted so that they may be understood by a person not familiar with the project?
3. Are notices that are required by the contract given within the prescribed time frames? Do they contain the correct information?
4. Has a baseline programme been established? Is it prepared in line with good practice?
5. Are revised programmes prepared when circumstances dictate?
6. Are progress updates accurate? It is difficult to subsequently claim a delay if progress has been reported showing no delay.
7. Do monthly reports adequately record the events, and may they be understood by a person not familiar with the project?
8. Are daily records of resources deployed to the project being maintained and submitted to the engineer on a regular basis?
9. Do you have adequate and properly qualified and experienced resources to create and maintain efficient contract administration?
10. Do you have adequate and properly qualified and experienced resources to prepare your claims?

If you can answer yes, to all these questions, there is a good chance of success for your claims. If not, then you may need to reconsider your approach.

For more help with these subjects, consider one of our e-courses, such as the Perfect Claim. Or, you may wish to speak to one of the team at Decipher