In administering a contract, the government party must manage any issues left unresolved at contract execution or commercial acceptance. |
When the contract is executed there will remain matters to be agreed between the parties and the contract will outline the processes and timing (e.g. equipment selection). The contract management team will need to devote sufficient resources to resolve issues during the construction phase as robustly and expeditiously as possible. For instance, planning matters can be very complex and time consuming on some projects (further construction issues discussed in Chapter 10).
Similarly, there may be some outstanding issues to resolve as at commercial acceptance. For example, at commercial acceptance if an independent reviewer confirms that the works under a project deed criteria have been substantially completed, apart from minor defects and the facility is capable of being used for its intended purpose, the Government party may enter into an agreement to allow the private party to begin performing the contracted services and receive partial service payments, until the outstanding defect item is rectified.
The project director and/or the contract director (as applicable) should:
• identify and record any compromises made by the parties as the deal was negotiated in the procurement phase;
• identify and record aspects of the deal that have been left intentionally for future development;
• identify and record aspects of the deal which will be subject to other processes (for example, subject to the conditions of a planning approval or permit);
• consider whether there are any matters that have been unintentionally forgotten; and
• determine the likely ramifications of these unresolved matters.
Typically, such unresolved issues will be added to the issues log that is maintained jointly by both parties.