Material Approval - Claim

Hi,

As per my knwoledge, the approval of supplier and approval of material are two different issues.You have the Supplier approval subject to conditions which the contractor can not object to. So he has to get the material approved and not the supplier.The claim put by him shall not be entertained as the material is not approved.

Experts’ opinion please.

Best regards,

Ameya

Dear Mohamad,

The first thing you need is to review the Conditions of Contract and locate all the clauses pertaining the nominated subcontractors.

The 2nd step is to review the material submittal reviewed by the Engineer and how many suppliers were submitted for approval and why the Contractor submitted a Contractor outside the nominated subcontractors. Usually when something like this happens, the Engineer must obtain the approval of the Client since is a variation from the Contract Conditions of Contract. Usually this is under Chapter 5 in FIDIC. Chapter 5 is silent against the EOT claims.

Try to find out the time required for the review of the material submittal. This is usually outlined in the General specifications.

You need to refer to the Approval Program of Works by the Engineer since this is a Claim for an extension of time. Subsequently, this may be treated as EOT under clause 8.4 b: " a cause of delay giving an entitlement to extension of time".

Of course the Contractor must give notice within no later than 28 days from the occurance of the event causing delay, as per clause 20.1.

It seems that you are on the Owner’s side of the equation, the Contractor must support his claim very well in order for it to be considered. Please review it and check how well it is supported, otherwise, it can be rejected.

Best Regards,

Samer

Hi Samer
It seems that they went with one of the approved supplier from the list. I agree with Kulkarni that approved supplier does not guarantee that you purchase material without engineer’s approval. It still has to be approved compared to the project specifications.

Honestly, I don’t see a firm ground here for any EoT or variation claim.

Regards

Dear Sajid,

It seems that they are spending time on claims to gain time on the overall project duration. This should be a large size project to enable different team members to work on these tasks.

Again, the EOT must be based on the Schedule of Works. Hopefully, it is an approved one as well. Subsequently, the approval of the nominated supplier has to be an activity on the schedule, which should be studied and analyzed like any other delayed activity.

With kind regards,

Samer

To disprove the contractor’s claim:

1) Quote the client’s approval of the new supplier in which
"supplier is approved subject to the condition that materials should be as per specifications"
is clearly stated.

2) Quote the relevant material specifications.

3) Quote the vendor docs / test results that show the material is not as per spec.

4) Give them a slap for being so cheeky ;o)

Hi All;

Allow me to post my humble opinion.

If the supplier is named in the specs, and the Contractor has applied to this supplier/manufacturer, then the Contractor is no position to tell if this supplier/manufacturer will provide material compliant with the specs.

In my opinion, it is the Engineer/designer duty at the pre-tender stage to check whether the listed supplier in the specs can provide compliant material.

I will give an example, without saying names.

A very reputable mechanical manufacturer was named in the Specs in the first order of priority. The contractor submitted the profile of the country branch and main branch and consequently acquired the approval.
Upon submitting the related material, the Engineer/consultant rejected the material advising that all material shall be from one origin. While this supplier has his material manufactured and fabricated in different areas in the world, such as China, Japan, etc... wWhere the relatively low cost of manpower (excuse me for this fact) and which is a well known information to all in the construction industry.

Accordingly, the Engineer should have known this fact from the beginning, as one cannot reject a named/selected (and not nominated) supplier’s material taking into consideration that this material is an equipment compliant with the specs with defined power and specifications, and is not such as stone material that varies in color and other specs.

Consequently, this depends on the discipline and trade for which the material/supplier provide. Therefore, the Contractor in one case eligible for EOT and in another he may not, but in many cases if the supplier is named, then the contractor is eligible.

Hope that the above clarifies the issue.

Best Regards;
H. Itani