Civil Engineering Project Management (4th Edition)
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88 <strong>Civil</strong> <strong>Engineering</strong> <strong>Project</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
and are thus passed on to the sub-contractor in respect of his work. The subcontractor<br />
is ‘deemed to have full knowledge of the provisions of the main<br />
contract’ and the contractor must give him a copy of it (without the prices) if<br />
the sub-contractor requests it.<br />
Of particular importance is Clause 3 of the CECA sub-contract which<br />
requires the sub-contractor to carry out his work so as to avoid causing a breach<br />
of the main contract by the contractor. He has to indemnify the contractor<br />
‘against all claims, demands, proceedings, damages, costs and expenses made<br />
against or incurred by the contractor by reason of any breach by the subcontractor<br />
of the sub-contract.’ But a sub-contractor undertaking a small value<br />
contract may find it impossible to accept this clause. If he fails to complete<br />
his work on time and this could possibly cause a delay to the whole project,<br />
he might be liable to pay many thousands of pounds to the contractor – far in<br />
excess of the value of his sub-contract.<br />
A further problem for the engineer is that, if a dispute arises between the<br />
contractor and his sub-contractor as to who is responsible for some defective<br />
work, the defect can remain uncorrected until the dispute is resolved. If a<br />
defect is found after the sub-contractor has left site and he is believed or known<br />
to be responsible for it, the contractor may not be able to get the sub-contractor<br />
back to site to remedy the defect, or to pay for its repair. To guard against this,<br />
the contractor may therefore hold back full payment to the sub-contractor for<br />
many months until a certificate of completion for the whole works is issued.<br />
This will cause another dispute between contractor and sub-contractor.<br />
The development of sub-contracting in civil engineering has therefore<br />
brought both advantages and disadvantages. However, problems rarely arise if<br />
the contractor can use sub-contractors he has worked with before whose work<br />
has proved satisfactory and he treats them fairly.
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