Andrew, I totally agree with your point of view.

By this way the project can be completed expeditiously without disputes

Hi Stuart,

This is interesting, in terms of the NEC you can deduct 10% of the contractors certificate of payment if he does not provide you with the right information, planning wise. The reason for this is that project management fees are paid, and as such cand be deducted, for instance if a monthly report is not on time, the percentage increases. It is a carrot, to get the correct results.

Hi Andrew,
I am having a fight about democracy, and at the same time the NEC, make up your mind where you stand and understand where you are going

Philip,

I totally agree and support the NEC in trying to make people pro-active. Even that though, when it’s written down for all to see in the contract, doesn’t always have the desired effect.

In the majority I would say most people don’t go on a contract these days (as in the past) looking for claims but for a thousand and one reasons they keep cropping up.

Bill,

Got to admit I haven’t seen a contract where a financial penalty is levied for daily sheets but have worked on some where other pieces of paperwork not being delivered attract some form of non payment. A very large (apparently the biggest) American Contractor springs to mind who builds alot of power stations.

Philip,

It can be the lack of records that sinks a claim - no records, no proof, no claim.

Hi Andrew/Bill,

The purpose of daily Diries/reports, is very clear. They are there to protect the contractor and if they are signed and agreed on a daily basis are probably the most effective tool in any dispute. Disputes normally arise when the correct paperwork is not in place, and this result in claims. This is meat for the so-called claims experts who then use the lack of evidence or agreement as theit basis for claims. The NEC is quite clear on these issues, and early warnings and compensation events are a matter of course, and unfortunately robs the thieves (The so-called claims experts).
As for Cost control, it falls within the ambit of planning, whether you have a cost engineer on site or not. Any planner with a minimal amount of experience should be able to handle this. Obviously depends on the size of the project, but as I understood the initial thread, the project was to small to afford both a planner and cost engineer.

Sunil

on 99.999 percent of the projects I have worked on, the Contractors must submit daily and weekly reports.
Within the daily and weekly reports are
manhours by craft
equipment use by area

this normally will enable you to track actuals in your schedule. If you have a budget loaded, its a easy task. If your contractor does not submit this info you need to force him to do so.

regards bill

How Accurate and consistent has the cost reporting been by a Planner with relation to Labour. which is quite difficult to track on a daily basis.
Does it work ???

Sunil

Ernie,

A good way to learn more about project cost control is to become a member of AACE International. Membership is free and you can take courses on line to become a cost engineer. They also recommend books on cost engineering.

Check out their webiste at: www.aacei.org

Good day Mohammed

I tend to disagree with you.

Cost Engineer is much bigger than cost reporting.

a Cost Engineer should be able to do the following
1) Estimating (Incl Monte Carlo etc)
2) Define the Budget
3) Value Engineering
4) Risk
5) Set up the Budgets
6) Monitor Budget vs Commitement vs AFC
7) Escalation
8) ROI / IRR
9) System
10) Foreign exchange

The above is just a part what cost engineering is about

So it is more than Seting up Budgets & Monitor


Cheers

Hi,

I agree with Jaco & Daya that a cost engineer is neccessary to carryout the requirement, what if the companies are not in a position to allocate a full time cost engineer to do such requirement, does this responcibiliy to be taken up by the planner or QS, this curious question is floated to answer my management as they beileve it is the job of the Planner.

Any realtime experinece in this regard is solicited.

Cheers!!!!!

Waseem

In addition with Cost Engineer, a Cost clerk must be available at site to park actual quantity, plant/labour working hours etc into right cost code..........