JCTs newest contract

So what’s this JCT Constructing Excellence contract?

The essence is to make certain that integrated working is embedded from day one.

What does ‘integrated working’ mean?

Working together with core objectives.

Who will use it?

Local government. They have asked for it, endorsed it and sat on the party to develop it.

What’s Constructing Excellence got to do with it?

We saw that BE [Now part of Constructing Excellence] had produced a document which actually went quite some way to where they wanted to be. So we developed that.

How does the contract deal with risk?

The contract pushes people into producing a risk register. They must sit down and identify what the risks are and record them, and then decide who will carry that particular risk. This contrasts with traditional forms which use a predetermined framework for risk allocation.

What about price?

The risk allocation is a prelude to the way of pricing the job. This can be a lump sum approach but the sum emerges after you have gone through identifying, assessing and costing risk or on a target cost in conjunction with cost reimbursement.

Does this mean the end of lowest price tendering?

The whole idea behind this initiative is that lowest price is not necessarily the best. Contractors can bring something to the party in the way a project can be delivered and designed. Once you accept that you have to evaluate tenders in a different way.

Is it bi-party or multi-party?

It is bi-party, between the ‘purchaser’ and the ‘supplier’, so that it can be used between any two parties. There is also an optional project team agreement which enables all the parties to come together and also ties in the pain and gain related to the project.

www.jctltd.co.uk