Construction professionals from around the globe attended a webinar on 5 October 2021 to discuss the latest addition to FIDIC’s contract suite as part of an online session organised by FIDIC’s contracts committee.
The latest webinar in the series of events organised by FIDIC’s standing committees was All you need to know about the FIDIC Short Form of Contract (Green Book) 2nd Edition and was attended by 400 people who were keen to hear about the new contract and its features and also the changes from the first edition.
The webinar was chaired by Husni Madi, vice-chair of the FIDIC contracts committee from Jordan and the panellists included Vincent Leloup, chair of the FIDIC contracts committee from France, Richard Touroude, director of international affairs at the Fédération Nationale des Travaux Publics in France, Francis Burga, senior contracts and procurement officer at the International Labour Organization in Switzerland and Mahmoud Abu Hussein, senior manager, procurement and contracts - UAE at Dolphin Energy in the United Arab Emirates. Also in attendance were FIDIC president Anthony Barry and chief executive Nelson Ogunshakin.
Introducing the event, FIDIC president Anthony Barry said: "The Green Book and the guidance material and the forms embedded in it represent a significant addition to the FIDIC contracts ecosystem. It is part of the very significant development programme being undertaken by the FIDIC contract committee as we continue to develop new forms of contract, guides, training material and webinars to support our best in class international standard contracts. The contribution of FIDIC contracts to the global construction industry is very significant and something of which we can be very proud." Barry also thanked the members of the FIDIC contracts committee and its task groups for the tremendous work they were undertaking - work which was appreciated by the entire FIDIC family.
Speaking first and explaining the background to the publication of the new second edition of the Green Book, Vincent Leloup, chair of the FIDIC contracts committee, said: “What we wanted to do was to meet the current demand from the international construction industry for a simple contract for low-risk projects. To make things easier and less proscriptive for users, the contract does not include an upper limit on contract value.” Leloup highlighted the features contained in the new contract and explained that although robust, these were less complex and detailed as in other contracts, making the Green Book easier to use and adopt on a range of contracts.
Mahmoud Abu Hussein, senior manager, procurement and contracts - UAE at Dolphin Energy and a member of the task group that drafted the new Green Book Second Edition, talked about his experiences of using the first edition (a contract he confessed to “have fallen in love with”) and the work that took place to update the new edition. Abu Hussein made the point that the revised edition was developed in response to industry demand and feedback and highlighted some of the key changes that have been included in the new book. These covered a range of areas, including agreed adjustments, variation to the contract and communications between the parties.
The next speaker, Francis Burga, senior contracts and procurement officer at the International Labour Organization (ILO), gave a user’s perspective on working with the Green Book. Burga said that that the ILO has been using the Green Book for more than two years in a range of countries and they had found it to work very well in practice on a wide range of projects.
Another user of the Green Book, Richard Touroude, director of international affairs at the Fédération Nationale des Travaux Publics, highlighted ten of the key changes and amendments that had been made in the new revised Green Book. Touroude explained the thinking behind these and gave attendees a unique insight into why amendments had been made and why some had not. It was extremely helpful to hear from a key user of the Green Book and to gain a greater understanding ‘from the coalface’ of how this contract is used in practice.
At the end of the webinar, FIDIC contract committee chair, Vincent Leloup, announced the forthcoming publication of a new FIDIC Guidance Memorandum on Covid-19 Impact to the Consultant’s Services Under the FIDIC Suite of Contracts and Agreement. Leloup explained that FIDIC had launched the new guidance to help clients and consultants to understand how FIDIC contracts will respond to a range of scenarios that have arisen and are continuing to arise as a result of the Covid pandemic.
Leloup highlighted that the approach taken by the Guidance Memorandum was to look at common scenarios that may arise on projects related to the impact of Covid-19 as they relate to role of the consultant and provide an outline of the provisions in the FIDIC White Book and the JV Agreement which are relevant.
Summing up the event, FIDIC president Anthony Barry said that it was vital that FIDIC remains open to continuing the type of dialogue and discussion on its contracts that had taken place at this event. This was the only way to ensure that FIDIC contracts remained relevant in a changing industry marketplace and it was to all the speakers’ credit that they had shared their thoughts in a spirit of collaboration at the webinar.
The next FIDIC online event is a FIDIC Climate webinar - COP26, net zero and a charter for change which takes place on Tuesday 19 October at 12 noon CET. Please register your place as soon as possible to secure your place at this free event.
Watch the full webinar recording on the link below:
