Contract Administration
Contract administration involves managing your contracts to make sure you comply with and fulfill the contract conditions. Good contract administration ensures customer satisfaction and minimizes disputes (masterbuilders 2015) .
A contract administrator should have a deep understanding of the contract data and documents of a project. A construction project will have a lot of contract documents and will be complex with the project scale. For an example, a project that goes around four or five years will have a considerable amount price fluctuation of materials, labour, and equipment. It is more likely increases the estimated cost. Appropriate contract documents for such situations are very critical.
All the construction work should be followed fully accordance with the BOQ, drawings & specification given. Completion of the project should be on time as stated in the contract documents. But sometimes extreme weather condition will effect in delaying the construction. In this case, acceptable way of recording these weather conditions is important and should include in the contract documents. Construction projects will have variations such as change of designs, change of specification, etc. so it is necessary to have proper conditions of the contract to deal with these kinds of situations. Hence, contract administration can be explained as the legal management of construction projects.
The construction contract administration is a very responsible and vital job role for any kind of a construction project. The following responsibilities will be carried out by the contract administrator.
· Preparing initial contract data and documents
· Negotiate and make acceptable contract modifications
· Evaluation and approval of progress payment and the final payment
· Monitoring the progress and recording them properly
· Certify contractor compliance with quality assurance requirements
· Assess and make approvals on contractor appeals for disclaimers and deviations
· Ensure timely submission of required documents
Academic qualification of a contract administrator is very important. He should have the knowledge of conditions of contracts that are issued by the government and relevant authorities. The academic qualification should be bachelor’s degree in quantity surveying, construction management or business management.
A contract administrator should have the following proficiencies in order to become good contract administrator.
- Good negotiation skills
- Practical knowledge in construction work
- Sound understanding in use of language of contractual agreements
- Management and leadership
- Effective communication skills
- Excellent reading ability
- Attentiveness to the detail
Reference
MASTERBUILDERS (2015). Contract
administration. [online]. https://www.masterbuilders.asn.au/contracts-and-disputes/contract-administration
