Abstract

Various forms of contracts guide the construction project delivery processes across the world. To make procurement more accessible and faster, various institutions have developed what is known as standard forms of contracts (SFoC). These institutions believe that SFoCs could be used in an adopted or adapted mode to reduce the burden of writing contracts every time a project is procured. This article discusses the results of a study that investigated the effectiveness of identified SFoCs and the experiences encountered by key stakeholders in using the contracts during construction project delivery. Study participants were drawn from contractor, consulting and client organisations and completed a questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions. 11 attributes synthesised from literature were used to measure the effectiveness of a contract. Three major SFoCs were identified as being used in Botswana: the Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT), the New Engineering Contract (NEC) and International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC). The FIDIC has a long history of use, but in recent years, the NEC entered the arena. Due to the low usage of the JCT, the discussion centred on the NEC and FIDIC contracts. Some insights were drawn from the study. Respondents did not find a big difference in the effectiveness of the two contracts (WME for NEC =3.3 and FIDIC =3.1). However, there were a few attributes for which the NEC seemed to be a better contract. These were a) simple and non-legalistic language with self-contained clauses and b) a communicative and proactive risk management regime, which respondents identified with a propensity to reduce or avoid disputes. The study had the limitations of having used a small (38) sample of respondents and the fact that NEC has not been used in the country for the length of time as the FIDIC contract.