A STUDY ON THE POWERS OF THE CONTRACT ADMINISTRATOR WITH REGARDS TO VARIATION ORDER

Abstract

Due to the ever changing nature of the construction industry and long duration of the construction projects, the construction project is always subjected to changes. When a need to change arises, the contract administrator is the party who will issue the orders to get work changed. However, the contract administrator does not have the absolute power to order all sorts of changes. Acting on behalf of the principal client, the contract administrator has to act within his own scope of authority. The study started out with a literature review on the law of agency and explored the powers of the contract administrators. The two common building contract forms used in Singapore, the Public Sector Standard Conditions of Contract (PSSCOC) 2008 edition and Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) Articles and Conditions of Building Contract Form 9th edition, were also reviewed. Past construction law cases were analysed and grouped according to the causes of conflicts. It was then observed that contract administrators were usually willful which led to them acting out of their own scope of powers. The contract administrators’ conduct was further evaluated and it was concluded that they had acted willfully out of their client’s interest. An evaluation and comparison of some of the clauses found in the past construction law cases and the PSSCOC and SIA forms were also conducted. It was concluded that the contract drafters in the past had made a lot of considerations to ensure that there are no poor drafting when it comes to variation orders. The analysis of the past construction law cases also yielded a common law principle which is commonly used in a few other cases that were analysed. The Carr v. J.A. Berriman principle noted that the contract administrator does not have the power to take any part of the work in the contract and hand it over to another contractor. Limitation of this study includes the lack of resources and time. Some of the past construction law cases were dated back to more than a century ago and hence the full text are not easily available. The study ended off with suggestions such as expansion of the scope of study and recommendations to the education system.