Abbas, N M A (1998) The impact of construction contract models on construction claims in Saudi Arabia. In: Hughes, W (ed.) Proceedings of 14th Annual ARCOM Conference, 9-11 September 1998, Reading, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry represents one of the important pillars in the national industry and contributes to a handsome portion of the gross national product in Saudi Arabia. This industry has since the seventies undergone a great boom that produced a new infra structure for the country and lasted for almost a decade. During the boom new construction contract models were introduced and extensively applied while still in their imported versions. Furthermore, new procurement methods were tried such as design / build, construction management and build-own-and transfer (BOT). Some new pricing models were introduced as well such as lump sum and cost plus, etc. Some hardships were encountered due to these experiments, either due to non conformity of these ideas to the type of project in which they were applied, or because the personnel on those projects did not fully digest the new concepts. Some disputes and claims arose due to the new application of these concepts, which exhausted all the parties to construction and jammed the litigation bodies. This paper looks into the contract models mostly used in Saudi Arabia and their effect on construction claims. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire to identify these relations and the results were analysed. It was shown that the contract model used in a project will have no direct impact on the type, intensity, or source of claim. Half of all construction projects do not use professionally produced contract forms. Time and money were the two major impacted variables irrelevant of the contract model used. Recommendations and further research were also discussed.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction claims; contract models; Saudi Arabia |
| Index terms: | pricing, Saudi Arabia, personnel, procurement method, litigation, survey, experiment, dispute, construction contract, questionnaire, construction project, cost-plus, construction claim, construction industry |
| Subjects: | economic analysis, contractual arrangements, contract type, data collection methods, dispute resolution, payment, industry analysis, management, Geography, production management |
| Topics: | Procurement, Geographical Context, Project Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Contract Administration, Human Resources, Legal Issues |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here