Enhanced Roles and Traits of the Engineer in Assessing Claims

Abstract

Several standard forms of contract conditions call for a third-party assessment of construction claims, to be normally made at an early stage of the claim evolution process. The names given to such third-party participants include the initial decision maker, engineer, architect, contract administrator, or project manager. There have been concerns raised in the literature as to the capacity under which such professionals act when rendering their evaluations, assessments, determinations, and/or decisions, particularly with respect to the scope and nature of their roles and the degree of neutrality or impartiality with which such roles are exercised. As such, this paper sheds light on the enhanced role the engineer is required to fulfill under the 2017 contract conditions that were released by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC). This role analysis was performed in comparison with the roles originally prescribed under earlier versions of these conditions. The findings indicated an enhanced role for both conducting consultations and rendering determinations, to be exercised over a longer time-bar stipulation. This new role is specified to involve a basket of streamlined interjections to be fulfilled along this prescribed period, ending with the clearer and rather explicit requirement of neutrality to overshadow the determination that may need to be given by the engineer in case agreement between the parties is not achieved through engineer-led consultations. The paper concludes with proposed constructs delineating the engineer’s traits that are to prevail while exercising these prescribed roles. The identified engineer’s traits are argued to mimic those that are characteristic of mediators when carrying out consultations and of arbitrators when giving determinations.