Role for supervision consultant or construction manager

FIDIC The FIDIC position stated in a draft position paper is clear, and clearly the best. It says: "Some people say that the system (a separate CM) works well, but this is probably a matter of personalities rather than organisation. There are obvious potential problems of divided responsibility, with consequences for the efficient management of the project, particularly if there are claims to be considered. The FIDIC system of an Engineer in charge, with suitably qualified assistants, must be preferable when the project only has a single construction contract." It says that making the SC the "Engineer" is the best if there are the are a SC and a CM. But the role of the CM must be clear, and the SC/Engineer must have all the responsibilities specified in the contract. The SC can of course delegate. How this delegation of duties to a CM is best done is unclear. One way is a separate Client-Consultant Agreement with the Client for specified services, and the main contract refers to this. ........................ QUESTION I still have some ambiguity about the issue. The client needed the services of the Construction manager ( CM ). In fact, the client already signed an agreement with the CM. the role of the CM is clearly stated in his contract with the owner, as to take care of the administrative issues, scheduling and monitoring and cost control and budgeting, also all correspondence shall be through the CM. The CM shall monitor the coordination between all T.C's ON SITE. Conduct progress meetings. Furthermore, the client needed the services of the consultant ( Design & Supervision ), and signed an agreement with an engineering firm. The responsibilities of the DC and SC are clearly mentioned in this contract agreement; responsible for quality and technical issues and review & comment and approval of shop drawings and other responsibilities, with a clear emphasis that there will be a CM with specific role(as specified earlier). Still, the consultant raises the issue of WHO IS THE ENGINEER"? My question: is this a valid issue? If the special contract agreement specifies the scope of responsibilities of the consultant during design and supervision phases, which are somewhat different than what is defined in FIDIC as ENGINEER, is this a legal defect in the contract between the client and the consultant? ........................ FIDIC Any separation of the duties of the Engineer would need to be thought through very carefully. If the project only includes a single construction contract then there seems to be no benefit in a separation of duties. However, if the project includes a number of simultaneous construction contracts, then there are important issues of co-ordination of contracts. Different designers, and even different Engineers, may have been appointed for the different construction contracts, so an overall manager is necessary. If it is desired to separate the roles then the exact responsibilities and authorities of the different organisations would need to be decided by the Employer and clearly defined in the Contracts between the Employer and each Party, including the Contracts with the Contractors. The drafter would also need to consider any statutory supervision requirements in the applicable law. All this would have implications for a number of different clauses in the FIDIC Contracts and would certainly require very careful drafting to avoid problems during construction and dispute resolution.