A Contractor's Guide to the FIDIC Conditions of Contract

This guide will help the contractor€s staff overcome some of the difficulties encountered on a typical international contract using FIDIC forms.

The majority of FIDIC-based contracts use the Red Book (Conditions of Contract for Construction), so this book concentrates on the use of those particular forms. Supplementary comments are included in Appendix C for the Yellow Book (Plant & Design-Build) recommended for use where the contractor has a design responsibility.
The Contractor is represented on site by the Contractor€s Representative who carries the overall responsibility for all the Contractor€s on-site activities. In order to provide guidance to the Contractor€s Representative and his staff, this book is divided into five sections:

• A summarized general review of the Red Book from the Contractor€s perspective.
• A review of the activities and duties of the Contractor€s Representative in the same clause sequencing as they appear in the Red Book.
• A summary of these activities and duties but arranged in order of their likely time sequence on site. This has the added intention of providing the Contractor€s Representative with a means of ensuring that documents are not only properly provided to the Employer and Engineer, but most importantly that they are provided within the time limits specified in the Contract.
• A selection of model letters is provided which make reference to the various clauses of the contract requiring the Contractor to make submissions to the Employer or Engineer.
• Various appendices.

The guide is not intended to be a review of the legal aspects of FIDIC- based contracts; legal advice should be obtained as and when necessary, particularly if the Contractor has little or no knowledge of the local law.

Armed on site with a copy of The Contractor and the FIDIC Contract, the Contractor€s Representative will be more able to avoid contractual problems rather than spend considerable time and energy resolving those problems once they have arisen.