Claim management and dispute resolution under FIDIC contracts 2017 edition

Abstract

Recent developments in the construction industry, such as the growing project scales, innovative designs, challenging technological advances, global competition, diminishing profit margins and multi-cultural working environments require advanced project management to ensure the success of projects. Contract administration, claim management and dispute resolution are crucial project management activities and require a detailed knowledge and expertise on the procedures adopted in the standard forms of contracts. FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers - Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs Conseils) contracts are one of the widely used contracts in the international construction projects. FIDIC 1999 editions have been adopted in many international projects and local projects financed internationally. Sector professionals are quite knowledgable regarding the different types of standard forms of FIDIC 1999. Although the standard forms of contracts are used in the industry for a long time, they are revised regularly for necessary updates. In 2017, a new suite of FIDIC contracts were published bringing significant changes. Claim management and dispute resolution are two of the topics where visible changes took place. Also, FIDIC standard form of contracts is well-known with their detailed claim management and dispute resolution clauses. Therefore, sector professionals are now challenged to understand and adapt to these changes in contract administration procedures under New Suite of FIDIC Contracts. However, the resources to support this adaptation are still very limited. The aim of this thesis is identifying the changes in claim management and dispute resolution processes between 1999 and 2017 editions of FIDIC contracts and provide a visual guidance for sector professionals to help them understand new procedures required. To achieve that goal, background information about FIDIC contracts, claim management and dispute resolution are provided. A literature review was performed on the limited resources tackling FIDIC 2017 contracts, including articles, legal notes, and sector reports