The implementation of construction contract in Vietnam has been improved due to foreign factor. The Ministry of Construction has promulgated circular No. 06/2007/TT-BXD (25/7/2007) to introduce in detail the types of construction contract, besides, it also encourages parties to apply some developed international conditions on construction contracts such as FIDIC and AIA. This means that conditions in Vietnamese contract must also consider international conditions and the role of engineers who play one of the important roles must be included.
With the aim to improve the quality of contract system in construction in Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen An Khe made a study to preliminary compare the role of Engineer between Vietnamese and FIDIC contract and then contribute to build a perfect responsibilities of Engineer in contract conditions for construction in even local or international contracts.
The objectives of his study were to:
1. study the roles of Engineer in Vietnamese contract with reference of:
- The scope of authority.
- Barriers and obstacles in the implementation in the real projects.
2. compare the roles of Engineer in Vietnamese contract with International contract – FIDIC.
3. propose recommendations for improvements.
Conclusion
It is understood that, according to Bunni 2005:73, when a project is initiated by an Employer/Owner, all the duties related to feasibility, design and supervision during the construction time of the project are entrusted to an independent consulting engineer who is called “Engineer” in FIDIC conditions of contract between the Owner and Contractor. But in Vietnam when people talk about such consulting engineer they are talking about Designer, Verifier, Supervisor, or Quality Assessor separately. It can be summarized as followed:
It is concluded that:
One of the advantages of FIDIC conditions is that it had become a standard international form is which an agreement that had been approved and made public by a prestigious body such as architects, engineers, contractors.
FIDIC conditions are much clearer and useful.
Vietnamese conditions are still set up under a local policies and law-infrastructure, so the following issues are still existent:
1. Government Procurement Practices: Bureaucracy in government approval system, local government policy is not compatible with international practice;
2. Differences in Standards system; differences in interpretation of Contract Document;
3. Law governing contracts are not strong enough to ensure the performance of the contract;
4. The Engineer under Vietnamese conditions are divided into separate Consulting Engineers while the Engineer under FIDIC conditions are the combination of such those roles, this narrowed the power of the Engineer in Vietnam;
5. From above barriers, it is so difficult for Vietnamese Engineer perform their own roles when they have to stand under pressure of other parties such as the Owner or the Investment Decision Maker, they have to suffer so many interferences while the Engineer under FIDIC are empowered to work independently and impartially.
Recommendation
From the overall view, Vietnamese conditions of contract are local conditions of a developing country, FIDIC conditions are created and modified by many members from developed countries and by the time they became one of the standard forms of conditions of construction contracts in the world. Vietnamese have a motto: “Learn the better and leave the worse things”, so Vietnam is on the way to apply types of contract as standard forms such as FIDIC in the preparation of contracts as well as improvement of the roles of parties who join into the contract especially the engineer.
Turn back the Engineer what belong to the Engineer!
1. The authorities should creative application in Vietnam practical conditions to bring the position of the Vietnamese Consulting Engineer to approach standard international ones, such as FIDIC… so that they can perform their authorities and responsibilities with respectfulness from other parties and without any unreasonable interferes.
2. Empower the Engineer what they obviously have.
3. Upgrade the Law system and standards system to approach the international practices.
4. The Engineer – them self – innovate their qualifications so that they can compatible into every environment they work in.
For further study, it would be better if a full comparison between Vietnamese and some other International conditions of construction contract to improve the roles and responsibilities of Engineer as well as the conditions of contract system.
His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
Abstract
Vietnam has become a large construction area with the building of all kinds of infrastructure including road, bridges, residential buildings, factories and power plants. Then the arisen problem is how to manage construction contracts effectively. It is widely recognized that construction contracts are key legal instruments which determine the relationships, and the rights and obligations between all parties and one of the main members is the Consulting Engineer.
This report, under the roles and responsibilities of Consulting Engineer, make some comparison between Vietnamese conditions of contract and FIDIC conditions of contract. Through the case studies problems will be described, analyzed the roles and responsibilities of Consulting Engineer - will be determined from FIDIC and Vietnamese conditions of contract - to see what the obstacles are when implementing in Vietnam practical conditions. Then some solutions/recommendations will be proposed.
