Contract administration and construction management
There is a very slight difference between the terms contract administration and construction management. Though they have been used interchangeably, the fact lies that one is more involved with the building. While the other is more dedicated to making sure everything is as stated in the initial owner or representative agreement. Industrial Architects and Consultants provide Contract Management Services . It includes all tasks directly related to constructing the building. It controls activities such as employing and assigning subcontractors and workers, keeping tally of material shipment, their costs, and their utilization. In fact, it can be argued that construction management is in charge of everything to do with the physical manifestation of the building.
In contrast, the contract administration is the collective work of the Contract Management Services, Architects, and consultants, along with the owners or representatives of the owning firm. This helps to make sure that the final building has overall conformance with the original contract documents. Basically, contract administration ensures that performance evaluation of contractors, service providers to the monitoring of supplies is in accordance to contractual obligations. They also ensure that there are no deficiencies in contractual implementation.
Contract implementation
The contract implementation phase of any major project is infinitely important. Because this phase honors and debates the procurement requests. The decreeing contract should be beneficial to the client, suppliers and service providers. If not, it becomes difficult to meet the required quality standards and technical details. Contract administration and Contract Management Services generally ends with a final inspection of the products or services. This happens before the end of the contract. This verification process should include ensuring the right number of products, the set technical details, and quality have been achieved in each sample as per the contract and that any discrepancies to the agreement are accounted for.
Contract administration begins as a selection process or bidding process for the contract. It also requires interested parties to submit strategies for performance reviews, the time frame of the project, the final deliverable product. As well as they negotiate contract terms. The signed contract bounds both the parties.The contract administration takes over the project for that point onwards. There are specific criteria for subcontractors and suppliers as part of the contract. The contract administration has free rein to select a qualified team of suppliers and subcontractors within the contract’s feasibility.
Role of Contract administration team
The contract administration team has to select their own service providers if there are no specific details. Hence they take primary responsibility for the risk, if the provider does not deliver goods or services according to the terms and conditions. Furthermore, it will fall upon the contract administration to instigate remedial actions if the constraints of the contract are not implemented within the framed timeline.
The responsibility of procurement and employment of services and goods solely rests on the contract administration team. They also know how to manage risks. The essential purposes of hiring a contract administration is to monitor the overall and individual performance of each division. This ensures each step of the plan is within the framed objectives of the contract. This includes timely completion within budget. It also aims in detecting any deficiencies or inconsistencies in the schedule. It finds a solution, which in extreme cases includes suspending or terminating the contract.
Conclusion
An experienced and quick-thinking contract administration team is crucial to the overall success of a project. For larger public-funded projects, this will make all the more different. Because at this stage,most corruption and misuse of public funds, wastage, and trafficking of material happens. While the contracting process for procurement is relatively faster than any other part of the project, the Industrial Architects and Consultants believe that it requires most of their attention. They think that a massive cost reduction is possible only during this stage. The contract administration does not generally get the recognition it needs as they work behind the scene during the project. However, without a stable procurement of goods and services, the entire process could be in shambles, and that is when their real value is realized.
