FIDIC 2017 Suite of Contracts

EIC is since almost fifty years a "friendly reviewer" of the FIDIC standard forms of contract and submitted comprehensive comments for the various rounds of consultations during the preparation of the 2017 edition of the FIDIC suite of contracts.

EIC concerned about high degree of imposed micro-management

The degree to which the FIDIC 2017 edition has been redrafted and restructured came as a surprise to EIC. Initially, EIC was concerned about the high degree of micro-management imposed on the contractual relationship of the parties, which, in our experience, might prove at times theoretical and even impracticable. Whereas FIDIC argued that a higher level of prescriptiveness was necessary in to transform the update into an active project management tools, EIC felt that FIDIC was putting at risk its time-honoured tradition to provide standard forms of contract that take the form of a manual of good engineering practice prepared by engineers for practical use.

Concerns voiced in joint letter by International Contractors Associations

Concerned about FIDIC’s departure from the traditional allocation of risk, EIC rallied support from partner international contractors associations following the publication of the pre-release version of the FIDIC Yellow Book in December 2016. In a joint letter, the federations voiced the common concerns of the international contractor community with respect to the onerous risk profile of the pre-release version, which could result in immense losses and even insolvency given that some of the contractor’s liabilities were uninsurable.

EIC acknowledges that FIDIC has incorporated many of our comments in the final update edition launched in December 2017. EIC’s Working Group "Contract Conditions" has started to review the new standard forms and will update its EIC Contractor’s Guides in due course.