PROPOSED SIMPLIFICATION OF THE LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE OF THE EXTENSION OF TIME CLAUSES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR STANDARD CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT (PSSCOC) FORM 2014

Abstract

Different interpretations of contractual provisions could lead to claims and disputes arising between different stakeholders of a Construction Project and even escalate to litigation. Additional time and costs have been identified to be one of the main root causes of construction claims and disputes. As one of the most commonly used Conditions of Contracts in Singapore, it has been deduced that the current structure and use of legalese within the Public Sector Standard Conditions of Contract 2014 (PSSCOC Form 2014) does not help in providing clarity to interpretation of the clauses. Therefore, the scope of this study has been limited to the simplification of extension of time (EOT) clauses within the PSSCOC Form 2014 in terms of language and structure. In order to achieve that, the objectives include the identification and confirmation of commonly misinterpreted words and concepts, suggestion of possible simplification solutions deduced from literature reviews and testing of their usability and effectiveness through interviews conducted with construction insiders who deal with contract administration on a day to day basis. The study aims to simplify the EOT clauses in order to provide clearer understanding to future users of the PSSCOC Form 2014, regardless of the extent of familiarity with construction law. It was agreed by the interviewees that the proposed simplifications such as the breaking down of the current structure, replacement of certain legalese words with Plain English and inclusion of flowchart and guidance notes are useful in aiding easier and better understanding of the contractual provisions. However, there were concerns that there could be a distortion to the intention of the original clauses for some of the proposed clauses. Hence, the author reviewed, made changes and came up with the finalized proposal for simplification of the selected PSSCOC clauses. All in all, it was concluded that the simplification of the PSSCOC Form 2014 could better aid the practitioners in understanding of the legal obligations outlined in the contract, especially those without any legal background. Certain limitations to the study were also identified, along with recommendations for further research.